This thread has become unmoored not only from its original topic but from any topic. It's clear that you feel strongly about some things, and that's understandable, but it appears to be distorting your interactions with others. HN is for thoughtful discussion, not antagonism, so we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't post like this here.
I don't know who "we" might be. Do you work for ycombinator? Are you an official moderator? Otherwise not sure why you would say "we". Just wondering.
That said, if we are talking about antagonism and HN, well, when it comes to topics outside of tech it is almost a sport to down-vote or berate anyone who does not align with a certain ideology.
In the over six years or so I've been reading HN I have yet to see any "we" coming down to say "We'd appreciate it if you wouldn't post like this here" in any of those cases in defense of being accepting of alternative points of view.
I go back to USENET days. HN is definitely better than any of that, by far, however, there's an underlying accepted ideology that is promoted here and everything else is rejected and attacked in various overt and and not-so-overt ways. That aspect is not very different from the kinds of things that could happen on USENET. Granted, public discussion boards are horrendously difficult to run. I get that part.
Discussions on HN are thoughtful when it comes to matters of technology. Outside of that HN is very intolerant of alternative points of view. People can find themselves defending from personal attacks instead of engaging in discussing the issues. Something like this:
HN is the person with the nail on her head. She is happy for the split second the guy comes in to alignment with her point of view. Outside of that, when an alternative point of view is offered, not happy at all.
Before anyone says anything --because I KNOW someone will jump on the keyboard and attack the choice of videos-- no, this has nothing to do with women. It's just a convenient illustration that came to mind.
> I don't know who "we" might be. Do you work for ycombinator? Are you an official moderator? Otherwise not sure why you would say "we". Just wondering.
Then please take the time to moderate both sides and allow for tolerance of alternative points of view. And, in particular, "we" should not tolerate personal attacks.
To be absolutely clear, I responded, but I'm not an employee of HN, a moderator, nor dang (just in case there was some assumption I was speaking for myself previously).
P.S. I'm curious, what personal attacks are you referencing?
