It's not acceptable to comment like this on HN, no matter who it is or what it's in reply to. The guidelines ask us to "assume good faith", "edit out swipes" and "be kind". That applies equally to all of us and in replies to anyone else on HN. If someone posts a comment that's egregious, just flag it, don't abuse the commenter, as it just makes the place worse for everyone.
Comments do not exist in a vacuum. 4chan is a failed experiment
Assuming good faith is a good guideline when there is no evidence of bad faith. If someone usually post racism and corporate bootlicking and is using their collected to Internet points to abuse the good faith of others, the system breaks down.
Please don't sermonize to distract from your own disrespectfulness towards HN and its guidelines.
> usually post racism
If there's evidence of this you should include links in your comment or email us so we can investigate and take action. Rayiner is of South Asian heritage and was born in Asia, which – of course – doesn't preclude racism, but it does at least require us to think twice before presuming his views to come from a place of Western-born white privilege.
> corporate bootlicking
This is an ideologically-charged epithet that’s invoked specifically to be profoundly demeaning. The comment you replied to was simply sharing of his personal experience as a customer of a health insurer. Anyone should be able to do this without being belittled in this way. (Besides that it’s inaccurate; I see Rayiner criticizing corporations often.)
As we've said before, Rayiner takes a lot of arrows on HN because he's about the only well-known participant we have who is notable for regularly espousing conservative/libertarian positions. He also contributes plenty of valuable perspectives from his personal experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and a compiler-hacker. He's subject to the guidelines like anyone else, and his positions are frequently debated, refuted and flagged by other community members, which is fine. But HN would be the poorer without him.
In this case you're the one who has been escalatory and hostile, and you need to take responsibility for your own conduct before pointing the finger at others.
