Please don't take HN threads further into partisan flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The entire thread is going to be about partisan flamewar Dang given the context. It might be best to flag the thread vs. flagging my comment individually.

It's a matter of degree. What you posted was a degree worse.

HN is about as balanced a site as you'll get (which isn't to say it's perfectly balanced). You just have to make your case substantively, no inflammatory stuff, etc. For instance I've seen reasonable debates with climate change skeptics here.

> is about as balanced a site as you'll get

Well no objectively it is not. that's why better keep politics away from it

e.g. i lean libertarian and i just deleted 2 of my comments which were beginning to get downvoted fast (no replies). The last thing i care to do is argue with a mob, and this is not the first time it happened. I 'm testing the waters repeatedly and it's not working. I would encourage you to do an experiment.

> Well no objectively it is not.

Show me something better. I'm not saying it's as balanced as you _could_ get.

Again, it's about how you post it. I've posted at least a handful of libertarian or conservative ideas that have gotten upvoted. You just have to make your case carefully. Snark gets downvoted, for instance. Rightwing or libertarian snark gets downvoted more, granted. They police tone here, not so much ideas. I think it's a fruitful policy.

i hear there are subreddits for rational political discourse. i dont remember their names, i use r/goldandblack for libertarian matters, (it is often frequented by leftists too). In fact i dont remember any substantial political debates in HN for years now, do you?

> it's about how you post it

I dont use snark but my posts are blunt. If i have to preface all my comments with social engineering fluff , i already know it's not the place to post it.

That's true, when and if liberals make it to libertarian places, it tends to be a pretty fair discussion (of course I could be biased as a fellow libertarian). But, there aren't many liberals there, and I'd guess HN is left-of-center overall.

There are far more instances of violence, or threats of violence, from the right than the left.

"capitalism is irredeemable" or "green deal" are positions that even in germany would be considered very left or far-left, not centrist. Where in the world would they be considered centrist?

It is fine. This is part of the problem. The moment you talk about right, you label them as racists, abortion banning a-holes. While AOC's views, who even Democrats label a Socialist (with policies such as green deal, 70% tax rates on high income earners, free college etc.), is now centrist! I hope you realize how different our views are - in that we aren't even on the same page to start the conversation.

But of course, we should ban the right since they are racists and misogynists. And then we act surprised when Trump wins again.

So it would be fascist to argue with someone that climate change is going to end the world in twelve years? I don't agree but if you apply the same logic to AOC then she's a fascist in your opinion.

>climate change is going to end the world in twelve years

That a position that is supported by nearly all peer-reviewed evidence is not considered centrist, is another sign we've shifted the window towards an ideological rather than rational/observational politics.

I would disagree. Most people believe in man-made climate change. It is a centrist belief. The ability to turn that topic into a fearful subject where you can rake in tax dollars is where it becomes an issue and a platform for the left. I work building software for climate research and lean to the right.

That position is not supported by nearly all peer-reviewed evidence (for any reasonable value of "end the world").

Well, that's certainly what the people telling you what they want you to believe want you to believe. People have been saying that all my life, and it wasn't any more true in the '70s for the Moral/Silent/whatever Majority than it is now.

HackerNews is at best center-left. Maybe not that.

The world extends beyond America where being on the "left" involves drone bombing.

the issue is the militancy, not the particular orientation.

i actively flag all political posts here. this is clearly not a place to have a sane political discussion .

I don't think discourse is hurt by quarantining r/the_donald. It has a tendency to show racist/misogynistic/conspiracy theorist memes and isn't really a good place at all for actual discourse.

Where did you get the idea most coders tilt far-left?

It is disingenuous to suggest that these subreddits are being banned simply because they "attack the left". T_D was banned because of a consistent pattern of rhetoric that violates Reddit's ToS, the most recent cases being outright calling for taking up arms against the government and killing police officers. r/frenworld, r/clownworld, and r/honkler were all banned for similar reasons, being hotbeds of violent white nationalist rhetoric.