Sorry for the wall of links, but I want it to be clear that HN has had massive discussion about George Floyd, BLM, the protests, police brutality, race relations in the US, and related topics. I bet we'd have to go back to Snowden/NSA in Summer 2013 to find anything comparable.
There are over 15k comments in these 52 threads alone. Let's double that and guess that there have been 30k comments on George Floyd-related themes. (I think that's conservative, since I came up with these 52 threads by ad hoc searching and there have been many others.) There have been 283k total comments on HN since George Floyd was killed, so if my guess is reasonable then over 10% of the comments on HN have been on these themes. On a site that seeks to avoid repetition, that is beyond massive.
For comparison, I picked the most popular technical topic I could think of, which is Rust. There have been 2664 comments on posts with 'Rust' in the title over the same time period—an order of magnitude less. When you're 10x bigger than Rust on HN, and someone calls that "aggressively removed from discussion", we seem to have left behind shared reality.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23614128 was on the front page all day today. Edit (12 hours later): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23628394 is on the front page now. Below is a sample of other major threads on these topics. There are many more, but I suppose 52 is enough to make the point.
There are over 15k comments in these 52 threads alone. Let's double that and guess that there have been 30k comments on George Floyd-related themes. (I think that's conservative, since I came up with these 52 threads by ad hoc searching and there have been many others.) There have been 283k total comments on HN since George Floyd was killed, so if my guess is reasonable then over 10% of the comments on HN have been on these themes. On a site that seeks to avoid repetition, that is beyond massive.
For comparison, I picked the most popular technical topic I could think of, which is Rust. There have been 2664 comments on posts with 'Rust' in the title over the same time period—an order of magnitude less. When you're 10x bigger than Rust on HN, and someone calls that "aggressively removed from discussion", we seem to have left behind shared reality.
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Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23604277 - June 2020 (232 comments)
‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Files from Hundreds of Police Departments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23599081 - June 2020 (343 comments)
NYC passes POST Act, requiring police department to reveal surveillance tech - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23586791 - June 2020 (91 comments)
Nextdoor ends its program for forwarding suspicions to police - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23586228 - June 2020 (121 comments)
U.S. Watched George Floyd Protests in 15 Cities Using Aerial Surveillance - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23579438 - June 2020 (59 comments)
Navigating the Venture World as a Black VC - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23564048 - June 2020 (75 comments)
FBI used Etsy, LinkedIn to make arrest in torching of Philadelphia police cars - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23556608 - June 2020 (376 comments)
‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’: Records police interaction, sends location - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23544749 - June 2020 (101 comments)
For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540162 - June 2020 (775 comments)
After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528224 - June 2020 (790 comments)
George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23522602 - June 2020 (794 comments)
Facebook fires employee for publicly scolding a colleague - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23504445 - June 2020 (313 comments)
Microsoft won’t sell police its facial-recognition technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23491226 - June 2020 (53 comments)
Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23488307 - June 2020 (852 comments)
Breonna Taylor case: Louisville police nearly blank incident report - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23484574 - June 2020 (293 comments)
Police have been spying on black reporters and activists for years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23482979 - June 2020 (153 comments)
Wikipedia became a battleground for racial justice - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23474974 - June 2020 (23 comments)
Why filming police violence has done nothing to stop it, so far - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23467912 - June 2020 (29 comments)
Transcribed police scanners in real-time - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23461607 - June 2020 (105 comments)
Protests about police brutality are met with wave of police brutality across US - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23445980 - June 2020 (71 comments)
Americans' perceptions of police drop significantly in one week - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23443410 - June 2020 (250 comments)
Facebook limits spread of 'Boogaloo' groups amid protests - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442294 - June 2020 (97 comments)
If you see the cops, start recording - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23432463 - June 2020 (256 comments)
Why So Many Police Are Handling the Protests Wrong - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23428606 - June 2020 (107 comments)
The Unmarked Federal Agents Occupying Washington, D.C - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23428432 - June 2020 (158 comments)
Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23424245 - June 2020 (356 comments)
CIA veterans who monitored crackdowns see parallels - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23415447 - June 2020 (63 comments)
How much do we need the police? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23409370 - June 2020 (464 comments)
ACLU sues Minnesota for police violence against the press - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23406844 - June 2020 (247 comments)
A Git Repo to Document Police Brutality During the 2020 George Floyd Protests - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23399533 - June 2020 (254 comments)
DEA authorized to conduct surveillance on protestors - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23397868 - June 2020 (313 comments)
Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23393914 - June 2020 (768 comments)
Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access to military-style gear - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23392393 - June 2020 (324 comments)
The business of tear gas - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391669 - June 2020 (214 comments)
Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23390707 - June 2020 (192 comments)
White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23386626 - June 2020 (225 comments)
De-Escalation Keeps Protesters and Police Safer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23385741 - June 2020 (721 comments)
Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23385727 - June 2020 (117 comments)
The Police Data Accessibility Project - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23384556 - June 2020 (90 comments)
George Floyd died of asphyxia, private autopsy finds - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23382954 - June 2020 (52 comments)
Facebook employees stage virtual walkout in protest of company’s stance - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23382573 - June 2020 (81 comments)
As Qualified Immunity Takes Center Stage, More Delay from SCOTUS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379910 - June 2020 (313 comments)
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379397 - June 2020 (396 comments)
Police act like laws don't apply to them because of Qualified Immunity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23373329 - May 2020 (133 comments)
Caught on camera, police explode in rage and violence across the US - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23371048 - May 2020 (114 comments)
Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23369873 - May 2020 (379 comments)
Surveillance tools used by the Minneapolis Police Department - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23355572 - May 2020 (177 comments)
US customs and border protection is flying a surveillance drone over Minneapolis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23352785 - May 2020 (412 comments)
CNN reporter arrested live on air while covering Minneapolis protests [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349294 - May 2020 (344 comments)
CNN team arrested by Minnesota police on live television - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23348464 - May 2020 (31 comments)
Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347155 - May 2020 (1467 comments)