It's really saddening to see that the idea that humans are not a blank slate[1] is considered a "tedious flamewar topic" while articles such the one that started this thread this are not.

Not everything is a product of society and there's a mountain of science to support the fact. It's increasingly politically untenable (at least in the anglosphere) to acknowledge any biological differences between demographic groups, but that's weak reason for shutting down discussion.

1) http://stevenpinker.com/publications/blank-slate

The issue here is mostly not ideological [1]. It's about discussions that have been had a thousand times, never lead anywhere new—and therefore are never interesting—and always turn bilious. It's impossible to pull these weeds with full consensus but I'm pretty sure most readers of HN are bored by angry tape loops.

At some point, moderation has to be opinionated or we end up with the brown you get when all the finger paints are smeared together. Except in this case it's brown battery acid, because it's so nasty.

HN can't be for everyone. The reader who wants that type of argument should probably find some other websites.

[1] I'm giving you a "mostly" because yes, everything is ideological—I did go to grad school.

Does the metric get applied evenly?

I'm no fan of angry tape loops and prefer a civil, moderated area. It's just powerful actors enforcing their politics, which seems to be getting more popular in every camp these days, is also highly undesirable. If I found that worthwhile that, I'd just stick to Chinese media.

I hope it does and we certainly try to.

Thanks. It's always a good to see a human on the other side after reading something eyebrow-raising!