In my book, if anything was disrespectful it's the flippant attitude of dismissing sabotage of the opposition candidate as just one more step towards the death of democracy in Turkey. (And I'm not claiming that was necessarily out of line. Seems basically well-intentioned to me.)
The comparison is pretty apt, and extremely current. More or less the whole world is watching with horror (or glee, depending on political values), as the US is on a fast track to repressive autocracy.
It's not that it's rude per se, it's that users of this site who aren't from the US find it irksome when a subject that isn't the US comes up and someone invariably pivots it to talk about the US and current events.
It's okay to talk about stuff that isn't contemporary American politics or even sit the conversation out and observe others talking about non American subjects.
Unfortunately, a lot of countries are doing a similar thing as these countries, there’s a lot of authoritarians taking over all over the world.
I think people should talk not only about the history or events in one country, but also talk about how other places are following in their footsteps and how we can prevent it from going forward where we can.
Also, interestingly, when folks talk about how the USA is sliding into authoritarianism on HN, it’s often downvoted, while for other countries it’s treated as serious and obvious, so it’s hard for Americans to see people agree that Turkey is doing bad stuff but they deny the same for America.
Lessons need to be shared so we can all do better together, I think.
Sure I see that trend of downvoting too, but I also see a trend where the American users on HN hijack topics that aren't about America to talk about America because they feel that there isn't enough content on social media about America or something?
It's a phenomenon that I think many users from outside of the US will agree is a pernicious problem on all social media platforms.
Americans should be more aware of this and aspire to not be so self-absorbed.
Eh, I just ignore those who don’t add to the conversation. If they add something useful, even being self absorbed, I consider it. Sometimes even an American has a nugget of wisdom we can learn from, believe it or not.
I don’t really want to derail this thread any further though, and I’m not Turkish so I can’t comment on the actual topic other than to say I wish them luck.
The US hasn't had the same history of coups, insurgencies, pogroms, massacres, censorship, corruption, etc.
Making everything about the US is just rude.