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That is great in theory, but in practice you get a lot of flack if you like Javascript or think Universal Basic Income is a bad idea. You get this flack regardless of the quality of your arguments.

Hn definitely has a hivemind.

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I like Javascript. I use it all the time. (Testing... but it's true.)

It's very similar to Reddit in a lot of ways. Say one negative thing about the government and you can expect a lot of downvotes.

Wait what? Just to check: Are you saying that people on HN can't say anything bad about the US government without risking a lot of downvotes?

Yes. It's not the case every single time. I've been upvoted for negative comments about the government but I have to be much more indirect about it. If I'm blatant about it, I get downvoted to hell.

I've had the exact opposite experience (i.e. getting downvotes for saying something in defense of the government). I think political threads tend to lean in one direction pretty quickly. I usually check HN after getting home from work, at which point most threads have already been going on for several hours. At that point, if a thread doesn't already have discussion from multiple sides by then, I don't bother commenting. I feel like at that point you're only going to get downvotes for disagreeing.

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