So? Once a mod is informed, and the story is proven legit, the flag needs to be removed.
In fact, a user made a post - news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18577485 - calling for discussion on the removal of this thread, and the implications of such.
'dang', the moderator, accused him of "breaking site guidelines", "creating drama" and said the story needed to remain flagged to prevent "outrage".
It does break the guidelines and it does create drama.
Dang is Dan Gackle. His handle is his first name and last initial, a fairly common format of member name used by such prominent members as Sam Altman (sama) and Jacques Mattheij (jacquesm). He does have a sense of humor about how his user name also works as a mild faux swear word or exclamation, but it isn't the primary reason he chose that handle.
I'm sorry you aren't happy about stuff being flagged or whatever, but this is not a good way to try to accomplish anything on this site. The mods do a good job and are generally pretty respected and the rules exist for a reason.
The story is mainstream politics, which is off topic. It presents no new or interesting phenomenon of intellectual interest, nor does it bear an even tangential relationship to technology. And, as expected, the threads posted have mostly devolved into partisan shit-flinging or complaints about the mods.
This isn't censorship or improper flagging, it's an attempt to keep Hacker News from descending even further into the cesspool of politics. The bar for these kinds of stories needs to be set much higher than it has been.
