treetalker
8 hours ago
Not sure about everyone else, but when I first opened the page, I see a background image of a kid in ice skates, face-planted on a frozen pond — and, below the question What can America do for you?, the prefilled text in the search box says Try 'How can I invest in my child's future?'.
And I'll be damned if that doesn't sum up the last 10–12 years.
Modified3019
7 hours ago
Same. Saved for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/rfMBEfy
treetalker
5 hours ago
Good thing: since removed!
Big Brother reads HN, it seems.
The rest of the uncanny valley is still there, though (bike shop with horseshoe; veteran on pickup truck next to rat-king seagulls; etc.).
ericyd
6 hours ago
this is incredible, thank you for your service
sublinear
6 hours ago
We're grasping here a bit aren't we?
alternatetwo
5 hours ago
For a semblance of sanity? Yes.
sublinear
5 hours ago
I think when people accuse HN of being too much like reddit these days (this time around), it's the whole "dirtbag left" vibe. Threads like this don't help.
datsci_est_2015
4 hours ago
Idk I’m getting pretty tired of pretending things are fine because line goes up. Feel like the first thing I’m going to do when we jump the proverbial shark (e.g. a military coup) is come onto this forum and say a big, fat told you so to the technocratic optimists siding with the fascists. Unfortunately the slide into a failed state (like Russia) is slow and depressing, rather than sudden and exciting.
sublinear
4 hours ago
I get your frustration, but from the perspective of anyone who's been alive for long enough, nothing you're saying is new and things genuinely used to be much much worse.
I'm not even 40 yet, but I guess that's old enough to have already seen this stuff completely cycle through.
If I had listened to people like you when I was a kid (before 9/11 even!), it's not an exaggeration to say that I would still be living with my parents and unemployed. I don't see how disengaging from society, being bitter, and squandering my time on earth helps anything. I'm not going to pretend I can change the world beyond writing stuff like I am right now, voting, etc. I don't have an ego like that and would never encourage anyone to either.
Grombobulous
2 hours ago
I don’t think you’ve ever seen anything “completely cycle through.”
We’ve never had a convicted felon as president before. Bonus points, the felony was for election-related crimes.
We’ve never had the capitol stormed and breached by insurrectionists before.
We’ve never had a president call up the Georgia Secretary of State and ask for votes before.
We’ve never had the president steal classified documents and store them in a resort bathroom before, and get raided by the FBI to get them back.
We’ve never had a president impeached twice before.
We’ve never had a president pay out a judgment to his rape victim before.
We’ve never had a president sell third term campaign merch after the constitutional amendment was passed setting presidential term limits.
We’ve never had a trillionaire illegally lead a fake government agency before and fire a large chunk of the federal government without congressional approval before.
I could continue but we would get exhausted all over again.
If anything the current slow crisis we are in has been greatly downplayed even though there is nearly constant outrage about it. We are in the middle of an attempt to turn our federal government into a Russia-style mafia state. This is not a cycle that has ever competed in American history.
qarl
4 hours ago
Speaking as a man in his late 50s - I think you're in deep denial.
trinsic2
2 hours ago
It is also important to call things like they are. There is a line between speaking the truth and being apathic. Im not sure that the line has been crossed myself. He is right though, Hackernews and a lot of people are acting like this isnt a real problem. Hackernews often flags things that call attention to these matters and many users downvote people that try to call attention to what is happening.
akersten
7 hours ago
"How do I replace my social security card" with the guy metal detecting the beach, ostensibly searching for it, is pretty great too.
jackvalentine
6 hours ago
“Which military service is best for me” and “I’m a veteran how do I get care?” being on the same carousel is putting the truth nicely together.
netsharc
6 hours ago
Want free tertiary education, subsidized housing and healthcare? Vote socialist^W^W Join the military!
sans_souse
8 hours ago
lol and the ai told me it was an artistic choice and it can't explain why it's there ..
ToucanLoucan
7 hours ago
I've been thinking for awhile trying to find something witty to say but I just keep coming back to how bone-achingly accurate this is.
Our country is on fire and the best thing the Government has for us is a custom ChatGPT bot that will look through it's websites, and probably give you some info from them.
I'm so tired.
baggachipz
7 hours ago