It's not assuming bad faith to point out that a comment is not in the spirit we're hoping for on HN and to politely ask the commenter to try to do better in future.
It is assuming bad faith to assert that an industry leader is expressing an opinion primarily out of direct self-interest. And “stating an opinion shared by many” does not make for great discussion; it's repetitive and predictable and doesn't give us anything new to talk or think about.
The whole thread has been flagged now which is fine; the central topic has already had plenty of discussion here, and this thread is awful.
It sure seems to me like you haven't read the guidelines, because if you had you would have made a different case for why this post should be on-topic, since the guidelines use "crime" as an example of what is off-topic.
I've only made one submission in 2024 and yes it's true it was not appropriate for HN. Since then I've read the guidelines multiple times and learned how to follow them better.
I don't see how a small mistake I made in 2024 changes the fact that the HN guidelines seem to align with a decision to flag this submission.
I think it's a gross omission on the part of whomever wrote the guidelines if discussions about ethics are deemed off topic.
Because many of these events where tech is being used, or abused, in a way that's morally challenging lead to those discussions, and I for one, am very curious why the tech literate crowd of HackerNews is uncomfortable in talking about them, and presents their amorality as "it's against the guidelines".
