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Why is Hacker News like that?
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technocrit lemmy.dbzer0.com technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-02-19
Quote

Hacker News is a case study in what inevitably happens to “apolitical” spaces. Politics and society are bifurcating, and Hacker News is taking the fork on the right. “Apolitical” is an excuse to favor the status quo, a resistance to change, and therefore a re-enforcement of the existing biases and power structures of society. It’s no surprise that Hacker News favors capitalism, opposes labor, and objects to questioning the privileges of its largely white, male, middle-class audience. It’s “political” and “ideological” for it to do anything else.

92   Original
Avid Amoeba lemmy.ca avidamoeba@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2023-07-05
#2 · Quote Reply

I feel icky every time I visit.

12
0xtero beehaw.org 0xtero@beehaw.org
Joined: 2023-12-27
#3 · Quote Reply

It's mentioned at the end of the blog post, but reading “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy”, by Gil Durán is a great book if anyone wants to understand the fucked up minds of these tech billionaires.

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davel lemmy.ml davel@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-07-08
#4 · Quote Reply

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Zerush lemmy.ml Zerush@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2021-04-25
#5 · Quote Reply

The rare occasions when I visit Hacker News I do it because IT information all other themes there don't bother me, apart in this themes there are better publications out there. For general and policy news there are other not biased sources.

5
MNByChoice midwest.social MNByChoice@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-08-12
#6 · Quote Reply

Pulling forward the first paragraph of the article, as we are far from universally reading articles these days.

Hacker News (aka HN) is a link aggregator where “hackers” gather to discuss technology, politics, and anything which “good hackers would find interesting”. HN is a means by which its host, prominent startup incubator Y Combinator, projects soft power, promotes startups it funds, and feeds people with ideas into its incubation program. Hacker News is one of the most popular forums for discussing technology online today – perhaps the biggest.

Does any know of a pro-union or pro-cooperative startup incubator?

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otacon239 lemmy.world otacon239@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-10-07
#7 · Quote Reply

I feel icky every time I visit.

Like all your dad’s friends you don’t like are hanging with him in the garage and you have to pass through and get hazed if you want a soda from the fridge. “Just here for the content, thanks.”

10
chobeat lemmy.ml chobeat@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2019-06-08
#8 · (edited) Quote Reply

Pulling forward the first paragraph of the article, as we are far from universally reading articles these days. Hacker News (aka HN) is a link aggregator where “hackers” gather to discuss technology, politics, and anything which “good hackers would find interesting”. HN is a means by which its host, prominent startup incubator Y Combinator, projects soft power, promotes startups it funds, and f...

startup cooperatives incubators are a thing.

6
kibiz0r midwest.social kibiz0r@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-07-14
#9 · Quote Reply

Pulling forward the first paragraph of the article, as we are far from universally reading articles these days. Hacker News (aka HN) is a link aggregator where “hackers” gather to discuss technology, politics, and anything which “good hackers would find interesting”. HN is a means by which its host, prominent startup incubator Y Combinator, projects soft power, promotes startups it funds, and f...

Enspiral comes to mind: https://www.enspiral.com/

11
ms.lane lemmy.world ms_lane@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-06-03
#10 · Quote Reply

The purity testing will continue until everyone follows only one exact way of thinking.

-8
sudoer777 lemmy.ml sudoer777@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2021-02-18
#11 · Quote Reply

Hacker News feels more like a site for Apple enthusiasts than hackers. And the time I've spent away from it has made me realize how not great the community there is.

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MNByChoice midwest.social MNByChoice@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-08-12
#12 · Quote Reply

startup cooperatives incubators are a thing.

Yes. Please list one.

3
MNByChoice midwest.social MNByChoice@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-08-12
#13 · Quote Reply

Enspiral comes to mind: https://www.enspiral.com/

Thank you. This is great.

3
Vendetta9076 sh.itjust.works Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-08
#14 · Quote Reply

Drew Devault is a loser and pretty much nothing he says should be taken seriously.

-6
blartcap_ lemmy.dbzer0.com blartcap_@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2026-07-03
#15 · Quote Reply

The purity testing will continue until everyone follows only one exact way of thinking.

Yeah I can't believe HN hides so many opinions it disagrees with so quickly and only encourages their predetermined values.

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abbenm lemmy.ml abbenm@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2020-06-02
#16 · (edited) Quote Reply

Pulling forward the first paragraph of the article, as we are far from universally reading articles these days. Hacker News (aka HN) is a link aggregator where “hackers” gather to discuss technology, politics, and anything which “good hackers would find interesting”. HN is a means by which its host, prominent startup incubator Y Combinator, projects soft power, promotes startups it funds, and f...

Does any know of a pro-union or pro-cooperative startup incubator?

I don't know that Mozilla actually does this in a values-aligned way, but they do have their own seed funding venture arm. I know Mozilla gets a lot of guff, 99% of it unfair imo, but I think it's one of the smartest things they're doing for long term viability.

Part of what they value and are looking to fund are "healthy communities" but for their purposes that might mean something like FOSS principles and privacy rather than healthy ownership/governance structures for orgs.

https://mozilla.vc/

9
sakuraba lemmy.ml sakuraba@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2025-11-07
#17 · Quote Reply

Hacker News feels more like a site for Apple enthusiasts than hackers. And the time I've spent away from it has made me realize how not great the community there is.

they love to larp as software engineers

4
Kajika lemmy.ml Kajika@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2022-11-23
#18 · Quote Reply

Y combinator is deeply rooted in fascism, I'm trying to find the hacker-news post that shocked me about "going back to silicon-valley root: the military industry". The "liberal-progressive" tone that can be read from commenters can soften the overall vibe but in the end the tone is definitely not great : last example for me was how the "stopomarchy" news was treated (flagged, and the comments smells very bad) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661901

It's been 2 years now that on top of this the vast majority of "news" are LLM related. And if you're not into that this make the website not worth anything any more.

12
krolden lemmy.ml krolden@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2020-06-30
#19 · Quote Reply

Drew Devault is a loser and pretty much nothing he says should be taken seriously.

Well I'm convinced

2
chobeat lemmy.ml chobeat@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2019-06-08
#20 · (edited) Quote Reply

Yes. Please list one.

start.coop

Fondazione PICO

Enspiral

platformcoops.de is not an incubator per se, but it has a similar function

4
underscores lemmy.zip underscores@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-06-05
#21 · Quote Reply

HN is for boot lickers, it's extremely obvious in just 1 visit

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TacoButtPlug sh.itjust.works TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-02
#22 · Quote Reply

I feel icky every time I visit.

Same

2
MNByChoice midwest.social MNByChoice@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-08-12
#23 · Quote Reply

start.coop Fondazione PICO Enspiral platformcoops.de is not an incubator per se, but it has a similar function

Thank you!

1
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