Ask HN: As a white cis-gender male you can't comment on [woke cause]?
Is this a reasonable rule or just a disguised attempt to silence critics?<p>I had this pulled on me recently in the form of &quot;what right does J.K. Rowling have to comment on trans issues as cis-gender female&quot;. It caught me off guard and it didn&#x27;t sound unreasonable.<p>But then she&#x27;s a woman, and she was talking about if trans people should be able to use women&#x27;s restrooms - an issue specific to both trans people and women. So she has standing even by this rule.<p>Going deeper. Does that mean as a man I can&#x27;t have an opinion on abortion? Many women would say that&#x27;s true. I&#x27;m not so sure it is. It&#x27;s also an issue about human life, so just by expanding the category to all humans, I would have standing even by this rule.<p>Let&#x27;s take it further. As a non-Jewish man, I can&#x27;t have an opinion on the Holocaust? As a non-Chinese I can&#x27;t have an opinion of the torture, indoctrination, and sterilization of the Uighurs? As a non-US citizen I can&#x27;t have an opinion on President Trump?<p>I think that&#x27;s nonsense to put it politely.