Simply put, it's increasingly harder for anyone to actually defend Musk. Over the past few years there's been quite a few threads on HN praising Musk, worshiping the ground he walks upon, making him into a Tech Savior and my guess is that when he says something indefensible like this, the best you can do is flag and move on.

Which, well, it's probably for the best of HN in either case. There's really not much else to say on this topic, although I hope that this whole nonsense he keeps perpetuating helps cull the cult surrounding him here. It's especially interesting because a few months ago I argued with someone that Musk will accept responsibility when he does something bad or says something stupid. And yet here we are.

It is quite strange. Gossip about how Steve Jobs behaved in private is routinely upvoted, despite being of approximately the same interest and value as stores about musk's public conduct - however the latter is routinely flagged. I guess if it was a story about how insightful he is instead, then it would be on the front page.

Two reasons I think. First, understandably by now the moderators must dread these kinds of submissions, given that they inevitably evolve along the same acrimonious lines. Supporting this submission by pinning it or unflagging it is sort of making a rod for their own back. Second, some people are fanatically pro-Musk and they downvote or flag without second thought. I don’t think it’s coordinated, I just think the result is rapid downvoting and mass flagging.

My advice is to email them if you feel strongly about this or other articles, and ask them to pin it or unflagging it, it understand if they err on the side of protecting their sanity rather than the submission.