Would you post here if people were allowed to say whatever they wanted?
The first amendment protects speech in the United States for good reason. There are bad people in the world. Those bad people can end up in government. The government wields incredible power. The three branches are meant to keep each other in check - but so are the citizens. The ability to vote in/out candidates is a balancing force. The humans in power being able to distort speech in the country to favor keeping them in power breaks that balancing force.
This article is asking "did the government attempt to suppress speech." That has nothing to do with moderation on HN.
dang is not a representative of a government. It's entirely reasonable (IMO) for the mods here to suppress speech critical of decisions a government is making - it's their site. It is entirely unreasonable for a government to suppress speech critical of decisions the government is making. Blurring that line is how you do a fascism.
Racists on Twitter telling you vaccines cause autism and that you can fix your phone’s water damage by microwaving it are bad. A U.S. President without the 1st amendment is worse.
We intentionally limit what government is able to do with broad strokes - it has a high risk for abuse.
Anything you yield today is going to live through multiple regime changes. You aren’t just trusting the current government with this power - you’re trusting everyone that will inherit it. The seeds of fascism are sowed through good intentions.
I post here now because the locally-enforced Overton window is much larger than alternative platforms, which makes conversations much more interesting, challenging, and productive.
If people could say whatever they wanted here, I’d expect to see a lot more comments I wouldn’t bother engaging with at all, but that’s okay.
I’m not a horse — I don’t need blinders to prevent me from getting spooked.