Hacker News isn't an activist group, it's a tech website. Individuals on this site may or may not be "doing" something about Ukraine but there is no reason to associate this with HN being "good" or "bad".
I've seen this sentiment in other places as well. Everything doesn't have to be coopted into activism for the current cause.
I know this is a selfish perspective but the Ukraine/Russia news cycle has been hitting my mental health pretty hard. Its nice to come here and see the usual interesting techy stuff and get a break from the horror.
Not that I disagree with your point. This is a place of intelligent discussion which could perhaps benefit Ukrainians better.
Yes HN is supposed to be about intellectually interesting ideas. And the fight against war and fascism needs those because otherwise we are in deep sh*t. So why not combine the two?
The situation with Russia is much about information. HN is about information and IT, no? HN could be the primary forum to discuss ways to counter MIS-information.
There seems to be a deep problem in Russia, its citizens are mostly duped by misinformation pushed by their government. What kind of intelligent solutions exist or could be developed to counter that?
Just this once, I want to contribute a "view from the inside" on how things work in Russia [in my opinion].
Sure, some people are hoodwinked by the propaganda. However, a weird misunderstanding is that "if they new what the Truth was, they would surely relent".
From what I've gathered growing up in Russia, that's not quite the case. I don't know why, but a lot of people here have a very apathetic view on politics. In that even if they knew all the "real truth", they wouldn't go into "fight mode", but would instead go into "man, same shit as usual, our life's about to get harder" mode.
I've just chatted with some friends who don't support the war effort in any way and are just as dismayed as your average European Joe (Giuseppe??) (and they have relatives in Ukraine too). What struck me really hard is that once again I had a glimpse of this weird mentality, whereby the person laments being in bad circumstances and start doing a lot of planning (and hoping) on how to deal with the coming misfortunes. Taking control of the change and nipping the said misfortune in the bud is just plain out of sight!
With this in mind, the problem that needs to be solved, in my opinion, is the "victim mentality" in the population, rather than the "misinformation", since "solving" misinformation would seem to push people into the usual victim loop.
Just my 2 cents, and I'm no one and my opinion is based solely on more than a decade of life in Russia.
I'll make it easier: it requires a lot more mental fortitude to observe that the country that nominally represents you is engaging in something abhorrent so the mind wants to believe the lies, because they are more comfortable.
For people who ended up supporting the war, yes. Propaganda worked, because constantly filtering misinformation is not exactly conducive to a normal life. Trust is the default mode of operation for a human who did not grow up in adverse conditions.
But grandparent seemed to refer to people who actually live such a life. People who do not support the government and are preparing for the worst. They distrust everything, they see that innocent people are dying and country is headed towards extreme times, but they treat it as impossible to change. This is pretty bleak.
Yes and but I think the problem is larger than just Ukraine. It is also about elections and people assuming they were fair meaning they don't realize or can not know that there are many more people opposed to the status quo than it would seem.
I think the apathy you describe could be to a large degree result of - misinformation. I don't have the answer nor any particular insight on what it's like inside Russia so I appreciate your input. And I think it's a worthy subject for discussion. The western world is not free of misinformation either.
HN is a tech news aggregator website. Some of us are more active in the appropriate forums. Do you leave comments on cooking websites suggesting they need to take action?
People who cook could help in their own way. Hacker News is has people who could tell you about how to run a botnet hack, mount an effective DDOS or the appropriate type of crypto to donate and how to get it.
Nevermind, though. I'm just feeling helpless and want to do something. I need to think a little deeper about it.
Building and exporting weapons is illegal (without lots of government approval). Attacking computer systems of other countries is illegal (even if they're Russia). Russians already have all the tools they need to bypass censorship.
Not OP, but Russians don't necessarily have easy access to those tools, or won't have it going forward. Running Tor nodes or organizing to provide VPN access is something that all of us can do.
I reckon the population of hacker news has drifted tremendously over the last decade. More content about the general grind of corporate tech industry, less focus on entrepreneurship. Many people in the tech industry who read and comment on HN are focused on exploiting the status quo and enjoying salaries offered by roles in large corporations
Perhaps one consequence of this drift is that people with more radical activist leanings, who are more likely to actually do something, are going to be more likely to hang out and discuss somewhere else rather than here
(i am not pointing any fingers, i haven't engaged in any kind of activism for years and grind away at the IT day job in exchange for salary.)
edit: the above argument lazily conflates people interested in tech industry entrepreneurship with people interested in activism. that doesn't make much sense, both groups will have quite different goals and often be in conflict. but i think there is definitely a drift where much of the people following tech industry news here on HN will be increasingly mainstream & functionally conservative.
Why are you frustrated? Have you mentioned here what you are doing to help Ukraine? If you haven't done things or have helped but not mentioned that here, why should others mention what they may be doing?
I'm thankful that HN is (kind of) remaining an island of politics-light STEM discussion, differentiating itself from the angsty college protestor vibe of places like Reddit. The response is muted because 1) increased maturity, and 2) moderation.
I'm not as surprised, given the kind of discussion we've seen the last few years. Hacker News main audience isn't true hackers. A large proportion of its readers are techno-libertarian startup/venture corporatists, many with an authoritarian bent.
Business, despite all its press and media to the contrary, isn't war. People are not dying and suffering and you don't really face any repercussions from your actions. War is a totally different thing so asking people to "move fast and break things" doesn't really make sense in that context especially when there are actual physical repercussions.
Also why should the people on this site really care? Honestly I get it is not great but in the grand scheme of things I don't care. I am tired of war, I have watched my friends and family members server in wars for this country since the early 90's. I don't recall Ukraine sending f*ck all for them. As such I just don't have it in me to give a sh*t at this point in time.
>Also why should the people on this site really care?
Would you care if gangsters showed up at your house and told you that everything you owned now belongs to his gang? Would you care if that happened to your neighbor?
If you think this will never happen to you, think again. This world is a brutal place filled with people that would take from you every single thing you hold dear without a blink of an eye.
>don't be surprised when Putin invades Latvia and Estonia.
They are NATO countries, so no. People are acting all surprised by this Ukraine invasion but it's been an ongoing thing for many years. This didn't just happen. Even before the coup/revolution in 2014.
Why? Because Latvia and Estonia would sue the rest of NATO for not abiding by the treaty? Is there any other reason the West would not try to prevent a nuclear apocalypse by appeasing Putin with these "token" countries? Does the rest of the NATO countries really want to die for them? Do we really want to test that hypothesis?
Take a look at the Putin's speeches starting with the 2007 one in Munich, and including the ultimatum Russia presented to the West just before the current invasion. Look up the "Escalate to Deescalate" strategy and the Russian nuclear doctrine. Read the Kremlin-funded "historians" and "philosophers" and Putin's own writings on Russia and Ukraine.
Well if an invasion of a NATO country doesn't invoke Article 5, then NATO ceases to exist. Is that what you think would happen? You think Putin sees Latvia which is backed by the largest military in the world as the same risk as Ukraine which has no such backing?
No I am saying they aren't our ally and have never been one nor acted like one.
They want to use us for their own benefit, which yes every country does, but I am just over caring about everyone else at this point.
