[Normal_gaussian]

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.

[ChadNauseam]

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.

[tpm]

> anything remotely referencing Travellers (UK), Roma, Gypsies

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.