I get that the guidelines are just about the most subjective black hole you could drive a quasar through, but what exactly is the offending aspect? Is it the “Epstein island 2.0”? I mean, who believes that these types of people will not be trying to rebuild that same kind of capacity in some other place by some other, albeit similar means?
If I were tasked to do it, the Albanian coast would be a top choice for me too; it has near perfect conditions for such an enterprise.
Don’t we discuss viruses, exploits, dark patterns, scammers and fraud when it comes to other things? Why would it be objectionable to call out the top civilization hackers and scammers and exploits? Everyone can talk about meaningless scams and exploits. Is there any bigger, worse exploit and hack than hacking a whole country and civilization and extracting trillions in sum?
HN's guidelines are subjective in the sense that they involve interpretation and no two people (including tomhow and me) interpret them identically. But they're not arbitrary, in the sense that every moderation call is just a whim. Most aren't borderline calls, and the one here certainly wasn't.
In this case it's the use of denunciatory rhetoric that fries any element of curious conversation that the comment might have contained. The combination of snark and fulminatey pejoratives is the kind of internet discourse which, however popular, is destructive of what we're trying for on HN.
(Secondarily, there's also something about the combination of "His kind [...] alien [...] paraistic [...] depraved" which has overtones that I can understand why other commenters were objecting to. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but such language does have history and the imprints of that history are still active.)
There's a phrase in your reply here which I think touches on the core and that's "calling out". Denunciatory rage and the shaming process are natural social responses to bad behavior. But it's really not what HN is for, and this isn't just a matter of taste because we can't have both forms of discourse at the same time.
Past explanations about this in case anyone is interested:
This is in no way to deny or defend bad behavior of course. It's just trying to preserve HN for its intended purpose, which is fragile and forever in danger of getting trampled by the much stronger default forces on the internet. We're simply trying to stave that off for as long as we can (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), and since it's more or less a battle with entropy, it takes a lot of energy.
You mean the talk that got us all out rights and freedoms? You know, like what started 250 years ago this year, and everyone has taken for granted to the point that it’s all just quietly being slipped out from under people who have no understanding for the value and contract of things??
I sincerely apologize to any cephalopods I may have harmed or emotionally injured with my irresponsible association with the Kushners and their ilk. I hope to mend the trust and friendship with all my fellow creature on earth that are all equally a victim of the Kushners and their like.
I think parent poster is implying that the language is directed at or about Kushner's Jewish ethnicity.
Which I don't think is the intent of anybody in this thread. We're just talking about them being privileged and rich.
I do think it's important to avoid accidental or deliberate anti-Semitism when talking here though. Epstein and Kushner being Jewish has zero to do with their vileness, but for a segment of the population it's all too easy to unconsciously (or worse, consciously) make a linkage between old vile anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Rothschilds or whatever.
It's rather odd that you good-boy with all the many points (we know you like your "karma") immediately jump to associating jews with evil and vile people like Kushner and his type.
There are many jews who are opposed to vile creatures like him and his ilk. Yet here we are with you immediately associating evil, vile people with jews even though no one but you mentioned jews.
Seriously, what makes you do that? He is surrounded by many non jews, he is trying to manipulate many non-jewish corrupt and rotten organized criminals, aka the Albanian government, he is associated with the most vile Sykes-Picot finger puppets ... and you immediately think "he's talking about the jews"???
Seriously, have you allocated some intellectual resources to working through that neurosis?
Criticise a jewish person for something completely unrelated: infinite amount of green accounts created on the spot come in and start vaguely referencing "ThE DaRkEsT TiMe In HiStOrY".
It would indeed be surprising to hear people say this if you completely ignore the words and actions of the Epstein class and the overwhelming amount of pain and suffering they afflict on everyone else.