What was Syria like before the war
Meta-commentary: This is one of the more fascinating threads I have seen on HN. It seems to parallel many of the problems with political discourse in the world today - maybe it's always been like this, but I'm not old enough to know.I would break down the comments into several types:1) conspiracy theorists who believe in some secret cult that is unilaterally organizing everything2) trolls - state sponsored or otherwise pushing an anti-humanitarian cause. They are throwing chaff into the discussion to confuse and disorient and to detract from the real issues.3) people with experience in these events trying desperately to be heard - these are the people meant to be drowned out by the trolls4) alarmists - people with relatively little knowledge of the actual goings-on who insist that every minor event is the end of the world (or Syria). I'm not saying that Syria hasn't been decimated, but that it was (and is) a process not an event5) the rest of everyone who is trying to make heads or tails of things and seems to fall into one of those camps.So, to one of the brighter communities on the internet (that's you HN) I ask: how do we (humanity) convey a full, factual picture to one another so that we may use those facts in conjunction with our values to agree or disagree with one another?