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Why downvote criticisms of capitalism?

8 points by Layke1123 ↗ HN
I have noticed an extreme bias as of late that Hacker News seems to downvote things that take a critical look at US established views of the word, specifically concerning negative views of the US's foreign interference in other nations as well as failures of capitalism associated with not just the US's bloody history, but in other countries as well. Is it kosher here to just downvote something you disagree with, or is the point of Hacker News to promote a certain viewpoint by downvoting anything that provides a thoughtful and novel critique of these subjects?

5 comments

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URfejk
Because what we (any country, not just USA) have is not capitalism, so you can't really critise sth that we don't have.
filleduchaos
I'm confused. Does the US (and other countries) not have a system of capital & private ownership of the means of production or what? We're literally commenting on a site run by venture capitalists.
Layke1123
So capitalism doesn't exist ANYWHERE in the world is your claim...

Even regardless if that is true or not, why downvote criticisms of it regardless? Isn't downvoting used here to encourage novel and thoughtful insights about any particular subject we find interesting, not to pass judgement on whether we like the criticisms or not? If you want to downvote someone for personally attacking someone, go for it.

If you want to downvote someone because they have an insight or question concerning the potential deficiency of a model or system, why not respond and articulate the counter point instead of just downvoting?

castorp
You shouldn't see downvoting as a personal attack.

It's simply a way to express disagreement with the statement.

How else would one signal agreement or disagreement if not by up- or downvoting? Would you rather have everyone answer with "I agree" or "I disagree"?

Maybe Hacker News simply attracts more US readers than non-US readers and thus they are bound to disagree with any criticism.

chris5745
Downvoting also decreases visibility of the statement, effectively silencing the speaker. If I disagree with a statement, why should I be able to prevent you from even considering it? How is this reasonable discourse?