[Lochleg]

Everyone is self-censoring these days, and you really need to operate within a limited persona if you have an online presence. If you aren't political, you don't really need to share controversial opinions online. That's just how it is. If you have a peculiar interest, you can still hide in the crowd and try not to use your main online identity on smaller forums. For example, various porn forums actually promote the idea of incest because it's an old and overdone taboo in the fiction they consume or something.

[wry_discontent]

Even if you are political, there's usually not a need to share your opinions online.

I'm political, but my politics are often irrelevant (especially somewhere like HN). Even when politics comes up, it's not like I write a manifesto.

[Ancapistani]

100% this.

I'd say I'm "political" - my username is literally a self-reported political identifier. I often post about various political topics here that I feel strongly about, or where I feel like I have an opinion or context that's uncommon in this community.

What I don't do is get worked up when someone disagrees with me, even if they do so in a rude or dismissive way. After all, most of the time the entire reason I'm commenting is because I believe I have an uncommon/unpopular perspective that I'd like to share. It would be odd to do that and then be surprised when someone doesn't share it.