As it should be. Politics done right means we can agree or disagree with each other, but otherwise still coexist in peace. As for burning karma, you can lose it when arguing either way, and in my experience, whether you lose or gain points depends primarily on a) the quality of your comment (as separate from contents), and b) whether it's the US or Europe that's awake at the time you post it.

I mean.. politics ought not to be an exercise in demanding conformity and punishing any non-standard thought.

Exactly.

What I like on HN is that, unlike some other communities I've observed, you can still gain votes when reasonably arguing on either side of the issue. The hive mind isn't as strong yet to defy all reason.

Didn't it change a lot in the last couple of years?

A few years ago I felt that I can speak freely, and in the worst case I wasn't upvoted.

Nowdays I feel much more like I need to choose my words very carefully.

Eh. I commented that "Chinese people are people too" the other day and got pretty heavily downvoted.

Are those downvoters expressing a reasoned belief that Chinese people aren't people? Or are they just reduced to a set of tribal motor reflexes with up and down arrows?

I'm actually kinda hoping it's the 2nd one rather than the first.

Oh come on now - don't pretend that comment was some neutral statement of fact. It was a clear implication of moral failure in your opponent's argument. And it's not really persuasive to then double down on a false dilemma (is my out-group evil, or just stupid?).

Think of it as a scissor statement.

Either it's the most mild, milquetoast statement possible or it's a declaration of war against Human Rights, Mom and Apple Pie.

I said "can", not "you always do". That said, context matters, and in the wrong context, a terse factual statement will be taken by almost everyone at anything but face value.

It is probably due that that phrase could be considered a negative commentary on CCP's take on human rights.

I've noticed that anything indicating a negative regarding China is squashed hard anymore on HN.

Yeah, that's called culture.

I've burned so much karma on political commenting that HN now limits me to about 5 comments a day, period.