It's certainly not that you're supposed to only say popular stuff. But if you're going to say something unpopular and inflammatory, the burden is on you to do it in a way that isn't destructive of ensuing discussion. If you just post it as raw flamebait and start fires, that damages the container here, which is already fragile. The site guidelines are designed to help us all protect against that: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

In a way, the one who has a contrarian (a.k.a. unpopular minority) view has a greater responsibility—not morally, but practically. If you know some truth that most people don't, that has much greater potency than most information, and you're responsible for how you handle it. If you act like a cowboy and just blare it at people, they will seize up and become less receptive, which discredits the truth and leaves its cause worse off than it was before. So the community interest (not to be destroyed by flamewars) and your personal interest (to express something unpopular in a way that can be heard) actually coincide.

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