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Comment by lgvln | Hacker News Reader

OP here. I have been monitoring this post on and off and it seems like a significant number of people are flagging it. It went onto the front page at least twice (both times ranked in the 10s) and disappeared from there. As of now, it is back on and ranked 103.

I recognize that there are some questions regarding the papers (they are not peer reviewed yet) but the response to it on HN is both puzzling and troubling.

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How is the response on HN puzzling and troubling?

I mean, HN got more polarized during 2016-2020. The issue in question is really, really important to people on one of the poles, and thus becomes an issue to people on the other pole.

My concern is the spirit of sensible public discourse here on HN. It has nothing to with one’s position on any particular issue. In any case, one would want and need credible information to make a justified judgement, not to have evidence or views contrary to one’s position be simply removed. To have a post from legitimate source flagged/removed from the front page repeatedly _is_ puzzling and troubling. It makes one wonder what sort of post actually gets onto the front page on HN.

The credibility of these sources on these topics are no more. Weak claims that no one really contests (the market being an amplifier) being presented in a way that supposedly addresses the core concern (being the epicenter), is not going to cut it. Future events can only be prevented if there is a culture of truthfully addressing concerns and the water has been muddied too much by politics to trust anything here.

Users are probably flagging posts like this because they want to minimise the potential for flamewar. Also probably because they are embarrassed by the conspiratorial tone of most comments under such posts. Try not to take it personally. It's difficult to debate anything on the internet when it becomes the subject of conspiracy theories.

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