I noticed your respectful and thoughtful writing which is why I don't think it should be flagged. It starts the discussion in a nice way, and as I said at the time there weren't even any rule breaking comments that were flagged.
The original post is about ideology, and the discussion thread includes battle over every controversial ideological topic you can think of. There are certainly many flagged, guidelines-breaking comments now, just as we'd expect for an article written in this way.
It's just not the kind of topic that can inspire curious conversation on HN.
It certainly does inspire thoughtfulness, in fact, I think this is one of the most interesting philosophical posts in a long time. He doesn't attack DHH with insults, but discusses frameworks of thought and how legitimate differences in opinion can be looked at by recognizing differences in the recognition of facts between parties, and the context in which certain courses of action are advocated. Example: the "sorrow of war" piece in the article.
It may not be HN's core purpose, but the essay is well constructed.
Edit:
This article resonates with me so much. It puts into better words how I feel about political conflict in the US. I talk a lot about "good faith" discussions. It's the reason I try to hold back the instinct of hating/resenting the people in my political opposition. I think (a) reasonable people can have differences in opinion, and (b) many people in the country are factually incorrect about the things happening in our country.
My relative straight-up rejected the notion that the president's family has benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in corrupt crypto investments including those from foreign governments, or that their family is self-admittedly engaging in rampant insider trading. Not "well it's not that bad". Not merely "the other side does it too". He denied the fact.
My anger is directed most toward the politicians and the media that knowingly propagate the lies and the intentionally misleading trains of thought to lead people into far-right ideology. They operate in bad faith. Even if some things that the right wants to do in the country have an iota of legitimacy, they do not operate with the context of decency and good meaning.
In many places, on Reddit especially, anything remotely referencing Travellers (UK), Roma, Gypsies will get flagged, locked, and taken down very quickly. To a degree there is brigading and to a degree a large number of people are unable to discuss them calmly.
Personally, I didn't flag the article but I think it might be right to be flagged - just; I think you have discussed the issue calmly, but I find the article to be faux respectful and presenting itself as being neutral where it is not. To me the article reads as posturing and signalling, and using the headline (cancelling Hey) as a thin cover for discussing something else entirely (the blog post, the disagreements with it, and the political disagreement with DHH). Note that HN says anything off-topic should be flagged, and the definition for off-topic starts with: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime...". If it had been, I'm cancelling Hey.com due to revelations about the owners DHH <link>, its cost me $x and was good and now I'm going to $y then I think it would be on-topic.
That all said; the topic you are really discussing is one that is very hard to have a reasonable conversation with people about. It has been unreasonably politicised, and is aggressively pursued as such; to a degree that distorts the basic facts and denies the real harms and impacts. One of my early roles involved physical security systems, and during it I encountered a large number of people suffering from related issues while the police both didn't have the power to resolve it and were not willing to wield the power they did have. I am deeply concerned about the widespread censoring of these discussions.
I didn't intend to present myself as neutral. I was explaining why I disagreed with him. But I do agree with you - having seen the site guidelines, it makes sense why it was flagged.
I imagine (living in a country that's unbelievably racist to Roma people) that "anything" is usually pretty racist though, so it's not really everything referencing these groups of people.
> I am deeply concerned about the widespread censoring of these discussions.
But if the alternative is quite often these discussions spiralling into calls for genocide then "censoring" surely is the lesser evil.
> the police both didn't have the power to resolve it and were not willing to wield the power they did have.
That's a very familiar experience I think in most countries, but as you say if we can't discuss it, and we can't because mass murderers in waiting immediately hijack any attempt to do that, then we can't work on a solution.
I've asked the moderators.