[ethanwillis]

Right so then that answers my question. Violence is okay as long as it is directed outwards and said to be defensive, thank you for answering.

I'll remember this when my country of which i'm a citizen uses these same defensive weapons to secure any mineral wealth in Australia.

[tomhow]

This is a site for curious people who want to have intelligent discussions about interesting topics. My job here is to uphold the guidelines, not engage in political arguments. If your response to my moderation effort is to invoke a whole lot of topics that are unrelated to the HN guidelines, descending even to my own nationality, you’re showing some strong signals that you’re not interested in participating here in a way that’s aligned with the site’s purpose. Other commenters were trying to discuss the topic curiously and explore nonviolent ways of resolving political disputes and you kept trying to drag the topic back to violence. That style of discussion, and the rhetorical trickery you keep trying to deploy against me, do not belong on HN. This is only a place where people want to participate because others make the effort to raise the standards.

[ethanwillis]

You're the one who inserted yourself in the discussion when I clarified my question. I wasn't dragging the discussion away from your preferred path any more than others were dragging it away from mine.

If you don't want to engage in political arguments then don't involve yourself in a subthread that wasn't even flagged.

In either case i'll leave and let you keep your echo chamber.