Interesting. The whole thread proves to me the exact opposite. That free speech is very alive since nothing here has been censored yet. The only way I can explain our disparate perceptions is that we're talking about entirely different things.

By "free speech" I mean not being arrested or physically harmed for saying something.

Is it possible that by "free speech" you in contrast mean being entitled to be invited, keeping your job, and/or remaining uncontradicted?

I would have agreed to your statement until around now-ish when this entire discussion-tree got flagged, including my mostly factual root-comment.

Around the same time the San Fransisco morning/lunch shift kicked in?

You’re only allowed to have such “controversial” discussions here in European time-zones it seems ;)

Well, we’re still neither arrested nor physically harmed, aren’t we? So our speech is still free. Ycombinator is not obliged to give our discussion a visible platform.

Here’s the obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1357/