Please don't post any more comments like this to HN. We're trying to avoid flamewars. About three notches of irritability ago is when you should have stopped posting. (I don't mean you personally; this applies to all of us.)
Also, HN is not a site for political and ideological battle, which you've been doing quite a bit of. Please do that elsewhere, not here.
Not my intention to have a flamewar with anyone, just a discussion. I've seen tptacek make some very inflammatory posts and claims lately about political issues, and it seemed fair to respond with the opposing view. Of course, he is one of the upper-class of users here, so forgive me for feeling like he gets away with things that "nobodies" like myself cannot.
> Also, HN is not a site for political and ideological battle, which you've been doing quite a bit of. Please do that elsewhere, not here.
That's one of the reasons I visit HN more than other such sites nowadays (e.g. many years ago I was a Slashdot regular). I have a healthy interest in politics, but I much prefer technical discussions where I learn things and discover things I can use.
So I will gladly refrain from political discussion here. I just ask that you ask all users to do so in the same way you have asked me, because, as I said, it seems that certain prominent users are somewhat above the rules. (This is not a slight or accusation against you or sctb, etc, just my impression.)
Thanks.
P.S. Dan, I'm curious about how this comment gets downvoted. The original story is 2 days old, and this comment is in a subthread under a flagged (therefore invisible) comment. No one should even be seeing this comment except you and me. Is there any way that this is not evidence of, shall we say, vendetta voting, i.e. someone going through my comments page and downvoting because they generally disagree with me? If it is, I wish that HN would crack down on it. Disagreement-without-discussion-downvoting is enough of a problem here without blanket, systematic brigading against individual users. No wonder I've been seeing so many throwaway accounts lately. It's practically "unsafe" (karma-wise) to express unpopular opinions around here. :/
