HN Moderation Censorship

We always talk "around" the story on HN. The topic is about censorship of views and excluding and silencing people because of their views. That means talking about the views too.I am just a non-US outside observer so I give this to you as food for thought but your post looks like an attempt to silence views you don't agree with. You didn't downvote but went on the attack. Rather than a derailing tangent, its actually a case in point.If it genuinely wasn't your inte

Don't worry about it. You're not really allowed to express controversial views on HN. It's more of an entertainment site than a quest for the truth.

The comment has been flagged and killed by other users. Though it makes valid points, it contains inflammatory rhetoric of the kind we just don't want to see at all on HN, as do many other comments on all sides of the debate in these threads. We'd be better off without any of it. Please don't feed it.

I'm surprised if PG did say that. If disagreement should lead to downvote, then unpopular opinions would not see the light of day.Also, if one's sick of discussing a topic, s/he can simply don't read about or discuss it. Why prevent others from discussing it?

Because the subject matter is a frequent target of "cancel culture" and it will attract flags from people who seek to silence disagreement with their positions instead of for legitimate inappropriate-for-HN reasons.

I'm worried you're missing the forest for the trees. As I see it, the over-arching point is not about individual issue, but the danger of debating them or, in some circles, daring to voice a dissenting opinion.What if someone disagreed with you on one of the issues you bring up? I'd like to think that here, on HN, the two of you would have an interesting discussion and, at worst, part ways agreeing to disagree. In other parts of life or the internet that other person (or you)

Thank you for unflagging some of the posts. I think that the discussion reads a lot better now. I sympathise with the difficult position that you're in but given the hostility here to hearing views from a variety of angles I'm afraid I don't think I'll be contributing much personally. I still think this topic makes HN a worse place to be and it doesn't have to take place here. There are plenty of more suitable venues.

The first line of your response very concisely illustrates my growing unease with discussions related to privacy on hacker news.The fact that you're having to "hold back" is sadly indicative of why debates on sensitive topics like this are turning into echo chambers. I suspect that many who hold the minority view keep quiet to avoid being yelled at.I don't intend to take sides here. I've only ever come here to read and understand other's opinions on topics tha

The "smaller group" here is anyone with over 500 karma. You're going to have to find some other place to have "contentious go-fuck-yourself arguments" --- about literally anything --- because they are anathema to curious conversation, which is the overriding goal of this site. That goal isn't changing just because we're all activated about politics right now, just like it wasn't in 2017.

I fear that this area is too divisive currently to allow for normal discourse. The downvoting in these kinds of topics have been atrocious on hacker News the last few weeks.