I’ve been here long enough to know that nobody gives a darn about the guidelines as long as the cause is widely favored.
I have also learned we are freely allowed to use the word “fascist” and accuse people of being members of that group as we please, but apparently one use of “elitist” against a New Yorker is a guidelines crime.
This is all plainly false. Community members who are sincere about wanting to make HN better or just holding the moderators to account can easily do so. They can email us with URLs, or include URLs in their accusatory comments. Plenty of community members do that and we always take action or explain our thoughts on the matter.
Accusations like this one, without any evidence that would enable other community members to check for themselves, serve only to deflect from the accuser's own conduct, and achieve nothing but make the site worse.
If you're sincere in being concerned about the patterns you claim are so pervasive here, please cite the evidence so we can all understand what you're talking about and enable the moderators to take the appropriate action.
I maintain that the claim inflammatory content is equally treated is plainly false. I would even say that your post above serves only to deflect from your own conduct.
Case in point, just today, of what I have seen hundreds of times in just the last year:
This does not pass guidelines, this does not satisfy curiosity, I have rarely seen a warning for content like this. Sometimes it gets flagged, more often it doesn’t.
Please stop this style of commenting. You've been here long enough to know it's against the guidelines.