[Brotkrumen]

What would those topics be? I guess they are suppressed quite well, since none come to mind.

[ozr]

"I dare you to say forbidden things publicly as we comment on an article discussing the negative impacts of doing so"

[Brotkrumen]

Are we pretending now, that even mentioning these "forbidden topics" will get you banned?

Here, I'll mention some for you: eugenics, Holocaust, incest.

So please, if I don't get censored for these, please tell me what these secret topics hidden from me are!

[wrp]

Taking this as a serious question, it wouldn't be hard to make a list of topics that get instant flagging on HN. I suppose the reason why people don't bother is they expect any attempt to explain would also be downvoted to oblivion.

[CoastalCoder]

I'm not sure it's that cut and dry. But I agree there are some viewpoints more likely to be downvoted than others.

I strongly disagree with Graham's view that disagreement is a good reason for downvoting.

[unethical_ban]

Question the legitimacy of gender fluidity. Wonder aloud whether some traditional social norms have societal value, even if the religious rationales are absurd. Wonder aloud if violence (perhaps only against property) will be required to bring about radical political and economic change.

[Brotkrumen]

I've seen those posts here, I've read the arguments in the comments. What is censored then? Unpopularity or pushback isn't censorship

[Glyptodon]

A lot of discourse about China on HN seems to get pulled into perpetual "but bad things have happened in the US too" whataboutism and a sort of mild muffling. Not to mention the weird stuff that happens with topics like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36946171.

[Brotkrumen]

The discourse exists though, right? Here and elsewhere. Censorship isn't pushback, bad arguments aren't either

[quickthrower2]

I could mention 100 I reckon, but this comment would be cancelled so hard it would pop out the other side of the server :-). Which is the point.

[Brotkrumen]

I've mentioned 3. I've lost 2 popularity points so far. Am I being censored?

[bheadmaster]

The whole Covid fiasco can't really be discussed on HN. If you try, you either get flagged to death or told to "get over it".

[sampo]

> The whole Covid fiasco can't really be discussed on HN.

"Covid fiasco" is not a monolith.

On one side, there are people with a position "Covid is much less severe than we though, we should have just let it spread through population, and go on with out lives as normal, like we do with flu. The fiasco is that we tried to control it at all."

On another side there is a position "Covid is a more severe disease than we realize. It affects multiple organs, and after repeated infections some people will get long covid for years, or permanently. We should still aim to restrict the spread of the virus, not anymore with lockdowns, but with clean indoors air, and keeping using masks is crowded situations and in healthcare. The fiasco is that we gave up on trying to control the infections."

[quickthrower2]

The real question is not so much "can I do it on HN or other niche forum X" but "can I do it anywhere where people with polar opinions can have a reasonable debate", and even more interesting "can I say this in public, where my face is in punching distance" and then the ultimate "can I say this in an election campaign" (at which point even basic facts are off limits).

[velhartice]

Bingo.

[velhartice]

Ivermectin is a good start.

[veave]

Transexuals are not women, abortion is murder, the US and/or Ukraine provoked the war, average IQ of different races and how it explains their behaviour. There you have four things that will earn you an instant flag (perhaps not in this thread for obvious reasons)

[maxbond]

And yet I still see them debated regularly. They're not forbidden, they're unpopular. A consequence of having a system of voting and flagging is that you won't always agree with the way people vote and flag.

> Transexuals are not women

As an aside, I've noticed a pattern that people fret endlessly over trans women and don't really take notice of trans men. I don't know why that is, but there must be a reason why it's so remarkably consistent.