[dang]

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not allowed here, regardless of what you're battling for or against. We want curious conversation here, and people hammering each other with pre-existing talking points and pre-hardened positions—which is what ideological battle is—goes completely against that spirit.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[Bran_son]

Is the article itself also disallowed, or only my factual rebuttal?

[dang]

I didn't ban you because of your point about whatever your point was. I banned you because you've been using HN primarily for ideological battle and that's not allowed here.

The reason I replied to your GP comment is that (a) I had to reply somewhere, and (b) it was the most recent place to do so.

[Bran_son]

Sorry, I phrased my question poorly. What I meant was, does the linked article also count as discouraged ideological battle (even if, on its own, it doesn't merit a ban)?

[dang]

I guess that's a borderline call. The topic is ideologically fraught; on the other hand, it looks like there's interesting history there, which it would be possible (though perhaps not easy) to discuss while holding a state of curiosity.

If this thread had gotten a lot of attention, standard mod practice would probably have been to (1) let the article stand, but (2) change the title to something a bit more neutral.