I'm sorry I couldn't respond to this sooner! I got started on a reply and then ended up on a flight with no wifi.

> it would help if you would clarify which guideline I'm violating

I know, and I wish I had the cycles to clarify this in every case; it's just not possible. If you look at the first paragraph of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42629499, I wrote a longer explanation about this for a different user who was asking the same thing (albeit rather less politely).

As a quick answer though, comments like these broke the site guidelines by using inflammatory rhetoric, cross-examination, calling names, snark, and crossing into personal attack:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615211

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615260

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615521

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615584

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615752

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42616108

> I have a "karma" of almost 20,000 and have been on hackernews for a very long time at this point

I know! and that's why I don't want to ban you, as I said here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42073831.

> I see a lot of deep flame bait in this thread.

Me too, so I spent hours moderating it and posted 20 or so requests to people to stop, as well as a general admonition at the top of the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42616355.

> A lot of it by people of another country, making claims about my own

Such perceptions aren't reliable. Internet readers tend to back-fit such perceptions to their assumptions about who would be holding a given position and why; but these assumptions are frequently contradicted by the data. Since the perceptions mostly add to one's feelings of aggravation, it's best to remember that one doesn't actually know these things (e.g. who is posting from where) and suspend them.

Unfortunately we can't publish the data without violating people's privacy, but many comments opposing your views were posted from Canadian IP addresses and many comments supporting your views were posting from IP addresses outside Canada. Not a perfect indicator, but it's clear that this argument breaks down on ideological lines, not national lines.

> it feels odd given my citizenship and past here, to single me out

You were in no way being singled out, and certainly not given your citizenship! If you look through my other posts in this thread (not that I recommend it), you'll see how many other admonishments I posted. We're as careful as we know how to be to moderate HN based on the site guidelines, not people's views, let alone their nationality, background, or anything like that.

There were tons of other users breaking the site guidelines in this thread, but it wasn't possible to get to them all. Unfortunately people tend to jump to the conclusion, when they see a bad post going unmoderated, that the mods must secretly agree with it. Nothing could be further from true; most likely we just didn't see it.

> There are some issues which trigger emotional response.

Indeed there are. The question then becomes how well we each can regulate our emotional responses. Commenters here are asked to do that regardless of how wrong others are or one feels they are. If you (<-- I don't mean you personally, of course, but all of us) can't do that without remaining respectful to others, it's best to wait until your activation has settled to the point when you can. That's not easy, of course, but it's doable. Your more recent comments in this thread, for example, have been fine.

> if you're not ready for the level of passionate vitriol this topic will unleash, it's best to lock or flag this whole topic

We do that much of the time but I don't believe it's either possible or desirable to do it all the time. For this community to fulfill its mandate, we need occasional cases of difficult and divisive topics getting frontpage discussion, and community members need to develop the maturity and self-regulation to be able to do it respectfully, remaining curious, even in the presence of others who are not doing that at all. Longstanding members have the most responsibility to do this.

It would be so much easier and less stressful not to take on that challenge, but then HN would be less than it might be, and it's our job to try to help it fulfill its potential.