> Note that I'm a leftie and I love the video...

Please don't explicitly state things like this, it only leads to more polarisation. Keep people guessing at your personal political preferences, they should not have any impact on whether what you say is deemed 'acceptable' or not.

Unfortunately it's mandatory because without it I and others like me are quickly branded with assumptive labels.

I realise this but the solution is not to wave the don't shoot, I'm with you flag. The real solution is to get the discussion to revolve around the message instead of the messenger. This is a culture change and as such it takes time and you'll have to suffer the (no so) occasional downvote-into-oblivion experience but so be it.

Here comes some ethically questionable but effective advice to stay alive in the HN jungle: if you're low on karma points you just post a few karma-whoring replies to top up the counter. Once you can breathe again you can state your mind freely until that karma counter goes down towards the red zone again after which you need to top it up again. It is very unfortunate that this is needed to stay alive here for those who have not yet built up a sufficient buffer of points but things being the way they are there is no other way for those who like to speak their mind on the edge of the sometimes very narrow Overton window.

Thanks. For me the big things are:

- Journalists and individuals need to use FOIA actions against their state and local governments to see e-mails to see what the true numbers are. That Nashville situation is absurd and we all know it's happening at a bunch of other places.

- Middle class / "regular people" need to start speaking openly and questioning and discussing the lifestyle restrictions and closures.

- A message of safety indirectly spreads a message of fear. Stop with all of the unnecessary post-Covid new normal "safety" things.

- It's about choice and we are pro choice.

I mean, the alternative is to only post on technical topics, where there's a lot less need for the "right" opinions (unless you hate Rust, I guess ;) ).

If only that were true, but political issues have crept into many technical topics in such a way that it is hard to avoid them altogether. Maybe a 'political' flag on politicised (sub)threads can help, together with an option to hide such threads. On some days it will be very quiet here for those who have chosen to hide politics but that only makes them more productive.

I do see what you're saying (and this has been happening since the last US presidential election, so over four years now).

However, I have a bunch of unpopular opinions, and have almost never been downvoted, because I avoid taking sides on political arguments.

Drink driving is banned, smoking is banned in many situations and only thanks to tobacco lobbies and tax income is it not entirely banned. Having sex doesn't affect passers by, just the active participants. Junk food you choose to eat yourself, you don't hurt others with it. It can cost taxpayer dollars in medical funding though, if you want to take that angle. There are hundreds of laws to stop people from making choices that hurt others, so even if your examples weren't so flimsy they would still be moot.

This is a once in a lifetime pandemic, it will pass, take it on the chin and accept that you might have to do something to help others. You will get your choice back soon enough. The choice to be a carrier during a pandemic affects everyone. Why is it individual liberty to choose to spread disease but public will when people die from it?

> Drink driving is banned

Yet it still happens and claims innocent victims.

> smoking is banned in many situations

Yet it still happens and claims innocent victims.

> Having sex doesn't affect passers by, just the active participants

By making protection mandatory we keep people safe and healthy.

> Junk food you choose to eat yourself

As stated earlier it has been repeatedly shown that obesity is a social disease.

I haven't even brought up second order effects.

How much police and health care costs would we need by banning alcohol? Can you think of other second order effects?

> This is a once in a lifetime pandemic

This is a once in a lifetime panicdemic.

Is it a pandemic if governments and organizations are begging people to get tested?

Is it a pandemic when less than 1% of populations are positive let alone in a hospital or morgue?

This isn't a pandemic. It's a panicdemic.

Please stop keeping us safe. I appreciate your effort but let me choose.

This is about choice.

> > Drink driving is banned > Yet it still happens and claims innocent victims. [...] This is about choice.

So there should be no drunk driving laws "because choice"?

Your argument really does seem to be, "Laws are worthless, because people break them", because you repeat it several times.

> This isn't a pandemic. It's a panicdemic.

I would be ashamed if I had written what you had written.

Where are your rational arguments? Where are your links to peer reviewed papers? Where is the moral, rational or intellectual integrity here?