[HN Gopher] Out of the Fog
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Out of the Fog
Author : wapasta
Score : 125 points
Date : 2025-04-21 14:39 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
| thimkerbell wrote:
| "Out of the Fog" is about the experience of "war babies" and
| other Asians adopted into the U.S., as they have grown to
| adulthood.
| camillomiller wrote:
| While I appreciate the story, I am honestly confused by The
| Verge's editorial choices in running a series of articles like
| this one. I understand it's been 50 years after the end of the
| American War in Vietnam, but what does it remotely have to do
| with tech?
|
| Why are they publishing this story/these stories? How is it on-
| brand? Again don't get me wrong. It's great that someone's doing
| it but... It just feels... wrong from an editorial product
| management perspective.
| schnable wrote:
| Maybe its related to their move to a subscription model
| somehow.
| webdoodle wrote:
| Or the writer(s) have personal experience with it, and the
| editor lets his writers write about what they are passionate
| about.
| shadowfacts wrote:
| The Verge has been publishing non-tech related stories for
| ages. Technology still seems to be their main focus, but this
| isn't new.
| notatoad wrote:
| the verge has always identified themselves as reporting on
| the intersection of tech and culture. sometimes that swings
| more towards culture than tech, but this feels completely
| outside technology.
| tikhonj wrote:
| Two possibilities:
|
| 1. They're consciously trying to expand their brand and topics.
| Maybe it's a way to grow a broader audience or move "upscale"
| or something along those lines.
|
| 2. Somebody _really_ wanted to do this, and the organization
| just ran with it.
|
| Both are respectable options. I'd actually respect them more if
| it's option 2--building an organization to give enthusiastic
| people the space to do what they care about is one of the best
| ways to produce great, creative work. We need more places that
| are willing to do high quality things just because.
| rdtsc wrote:
| They are doing an American War series
| https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/650505/vietnam-war-fall...
|
| The editors are Kevin Nguyen and Sarah Jeong. I guess the have
| various other staffers like Camille Bromley do certain
| articles.
| neilv wrote:
| Maybe they want to be more about serious, meaningful
| journalism, and less about techbro press release regurgitation.
| jagger27 wrote:
| Separate tech from culture at your own blindfolded peril.
| Consider what a clean delineation between tech news and "real"
| news would mean, and what slant it would take on.
|
| The Verge is publishing this piece in the context of today.
| There are undocumented migrants right now being moved around
| and out of country, put into detention centres, and being
| denied the due process that was previously in place. There is
| _a lot_ of tech in that ongoing story. To consider America's
| history with forced migration at a time like this is perfectly
| reasonable.
| Legend2440 wrote:
| >Consider what a clean delineation between tech news and
| "real" news would mean
|
| The old 90s tech magazines like CPU magazine or PC World come
| to mind. Nothing wrong with that kind of publication, and I
| wish there was more of it.
|
| Not everything has to be about politics.
| jagger27 wrote:
| Talking about tech as if it exists outside the context that
| surrounds it is like talking about farming without
| considering who it feeds. Sure you can totally do that, but
| let's not talk about why that silo of oats is rotting when
| there are hungry people out there.
|
| Peril, etc.
| alpha_squared wrote:
| > The old 90s tech magazines like CPU magazine or PC World
| come to mind
|
| Not to be too facetious, but, where -- uh -- are those
| magazines today? The internet changed things. Being that
| hyper-focused on a topic makes for building a good niche,
| but maybe not a good business.
| rubslopes wrote:
| I have been reading The Verge regularly for more than ten
| years. There was an increase in political articles since the
| first election of Trump.
| randfish wrote:
| Just wanted to say thanks for the submission. I never would have
| found this story otherwise, and it's both a powerful read and
| especially relevant to a close friend--she was one of the
| airlifted/trafficked babies and has never been able to find her
| birth parents.
| jonhohle wrote:
| > the beneficent embrace of the American family was always
| conditional
|
| My heart breaks for anyone brought to the US who weren't given
| citizenship. I'm well aware of families who didn't know there
| were additional steps to perform and often wonder what agencies
| failed their due diligence in guiding them through that process.
| Enough people screwed up that it seems absurd to deny citizenship
| to those who would otherwise have it.
|
| My representative is adopted and has adopted and he'll be
| receiving a letter encouraging his support of allowing
| citizenship for these adoptees that missed it through no fault of
| their own.
|
| That said, as an adoptive parent this is a common trope - ignore
| the millions of successful adoptions to focus on those that are
| horrific. Cast parents as baby smugglers with fiendish intent.
| I'm sure those people exist, but as a parent in this community
| for almost 14 years, I've met untold families excited to provide
| for the needs of a child who has already experienced significant
| trauma. No adoption exists without loss. We can, at best, try to
| mend what's already been done.
|
| Fortunately, for us, the process for citizenship was laid out -
| also complicated and nerve racking. There were no conditions
| (except for us as parents and sponsors).
|
| My love for my children is unconditional.
| jonhohle wrote:
| > Conservative opponents categorize it as an undesirable
| "immigration bill" and demand that adopted people with criminal
| records and the many dozen adoptees who have already been
| deported be excluded from the bill.
|
| I'd also like to see a source for this claim. In the house
| there are 13 republican co-sponsors for the Adoptee Citizenship
| Act (including my rep). My personal experience is that adoptive
| parents are overwhelmingly conservative.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| Adam Smith sponsored the last bill. He said the issue being
| tied to immigration hindered the bill according to NPR.[1]
|
| A National Korean American Service and Education Consortium
| representative said some Congress members don't want to touch
| an immigration bill unless it is about border security
| according to AsAmNews.[2]
|
| Over 200 House Republicans did not sponsor the last bill. Do
| we need a source for some Republicans not supporting
| citizenship for people with criminal records?
|
| How are adoptive parents' politics relevant?
|
| [1] https://www.npr.org/2025/04/19/g-s1-60166/trump-
| immigration-...
|
| [2] https://asamnews.com/2024/08/21/adoptees-face-
| deportation-un...
| w0m wrote:
| > My personal experience is that adoptive parents are
| overwhelmingly conservative.
|
| The current republican leadership has been pretty shit lately
| insofar as being human. "The fundamental weakness of Western
| civilization is empathy" being a direct and recent quote by
| arguably the most powerful man on the planet.
|
| That isn't to disagree with your personal experience by any
| stretch; just point out that those in power/pushing these
| laws are much more... raging asshole. MGT celebrating the
| popes death today as another example.
|
| That's why the current voting trends frustrate me so much;
| base morality seems to have left the conversation. :(
| bastardoperator wrote:
| None of this matters if we do not have due process.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Title: The rescued Vietnamese infants of Operation Babylift have
| grown up
| trwhite wrote:
| Scroll down for the content: https://archive.ph/aD9os
| y-curious wrote:
| My first experience learning about Operation Babylift was being
| traumatized by the Christmas episode of Hey Arnold. It's a
| fascinating situation, saving babies that have no parents because
| of your actions as a country.
|
| I don't like that this article was written in such a negative
| light. I am sure there were terrible situations, but also, you
| simply wouldn't be writing about a Vietnamese orphan that died on
| the street without ever being sent to adoptive parents. It feels
| a bit biased to treat this as an overall negative action by the
| US. I have met several Babylift adoptees living in SF, and I
| think they would voice dissenting opinions.
| huhkerrf wrote:
| My wife and I looked a lot into adopting, and this is a really
| common thing.
|
| You have adoptees who didn't have a great life and they are,
| justifiably, upset. But the problem is that you aren't hearing
| from the ones who are happy or just neutral about being
| adopted. So if you go to reddit, you'll hear a lot about the
| evils of adoption, and you won't hear anyone saying it was a
| positive outcome.
|
| I'd be lying if I said it didn't influence us at all about
| adoption. In the end, we didn't feel we had the means to adopt
| and my company ended its adoption benefit, so it wasn't the
| only reason.
| bernhart wrote:
| Adopting in this context does not have positive light. The kids
| in question got their parents taken away violently, their
| identity erased. Were taken back to the country that orphaned
| them and raised as Americans, then they get their families and
| identity taken away for a second time,
|
| It's not possible to separate the adoption from all of the
| context above.
| uwagar wrote:
| guess this is off-topic but in 1999 i flew to uk (for the first
| time) via malaysia. the 747 stopped for fuel at munich and
| wandering the aisle i happened to talk to an old chinese lady
| that stunned me with very fluent tamil! (my mother tongue). she
| was adopted and brought up by immigrant tamil parents in
| malaysia. they even married her to a malaysia indian tamil man
| and she had a daughter that she was going to visit in manchester.
| ______ wrote:
| People were really desperate to get out of there at the end. A
| wild story is of Buang Ly who landed a Cessna on a US aircraft
| carrier: https://www.historynet.com/maj-buang-lys-daring-feat-to-
| save...
| mkl wrote:
| Big discussion three months ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42826536
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