I wish you were being blocked for your political views. Some of my comments make it into the NYT, some don't. That everyone talks "free speech" while at the same time ignoring that speech may be free but like everything else, only the speech that improves the financials of the media organization get through. No one does this consciously, but it's the end-result. All the subtle ways polarization continues.

When you wrote "Mr. Cohen is weaving" the algorithm probably blocked your comment right there for disrespecting him. "democracy-loving liberals" probably also got you rejected. I'm just speculating, but it seems my comments get blocked more often if put in "NYT" or the name of the author, etc. Or any of those "trigger words".

I believe the Times has some people skimming the comments for publication. But no one reads or thinks about them.

There's no way to win your argument. You say, "history says that in the Gorbachev era" and they answer "history doesn't matter, things are different." I see the connection between the failure of Gorbachev's revolution and wars which will burn for decades (starting in Ukraine, or maybe Syria). But I can't make the argument in a comment. At least not without sounding shrill when I try to compress it.

You, we, suffering the Vietnam war trope "Catch-22".