You can't attack others like this on HN, regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is.
Also, could you please not post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments generally? We're trying for something a bit different than internet default here, to the extent possible.
"You can't attack others like this on HN, regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is."
You can and you ought to when damn fools put lives of others at stake. This not the time for niceties or political correctness. We're in a war, the next life could be mine—and I'm not suicidal.
Incidentally, many seem to forget the a priori reason for government is to keep the citizenry safe—safe from the threat of outsiders, and safe from insiders who wish to harm their fellow citizens, they're justification for the military and law enforcement respectfully.
I expect Government to keep my fellow citizens and me safe; if it doesn't then it has failed in its mission.
"<...> could you please not post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments generally? We're trying for something a bit different than internet default here,<...>"
If you took the time to read a few of my posts then you would realize that I'm probably too polite on most occasions, also I have never criticized a HN poster directly—and in this instance I was making a general comment with no particular name in mind. Moreover, I go to considerable lengths to ensure that I do not post hearsay or unsubstantiated fact.
_
Edit: "regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is" I made no criticism of other posts including the person to whom I was replying. Saying that his criticism perhaps wasn't strong enough given the dire circumstances isn't flaming, rather it's debate.
(I was replying to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27798953, not to you - did you miss that? You might need to turn 'showdead' on in your profile to see the comment, since it's flagkilled now. But I should probably still respond to what you've said here because it is definitely not how HN is supposed to work.)
Sorry, but there's always a version of this argument to be made and people always make it to show that this time is different and their comment is justified. You can justify anything that way, and mostly what people use it to justify is just regular old internet flamewar, which is never very interesting. So I don't see any reason to change HN's rules; if anything, they become more important, not less, as the stakes get higher.
"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."
Also, could you please not post flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments generally? We're trying for something a bit different than internet default here, to the extent possible.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.