As you have worded it, I would be fine with that question provided they were respectful, and weren’t obviously sealioning or astroturfing. It would be thought/discussion provoking, open ended, and they might just end up reevaluating their beliefs as a consequence.

The comments might get spicy, but that’s what mods are for.

Can’t see the comment. “Server Error”.

TLDR;

• LW policy perspective --> I agree on balance
• LW enforcing it on all LW communities --> I disagree as it is not necessary, but it’s their instance, so…
• Fediverse strength --> Move your community to another instance. I’ll susbscribe if you do.

I can see both sides.

On the one hand, history is replete with popular opinions that were later shown to be incorrect. One of the reasons I chose to move to Lemmy was the inherent resistance of the fediverse to the enforcement of a particular narrative, and the inherent potential for respectful discussion and debate. As long as people remain respectful, my inclination is to leave up content that I disagree with. Please note, it has to be respectful, not merely polite.

On the other hand, there’s no shortage of evidence that deliberate misinformation remains a threat in online communities. This is why we implemented no astroturfing and no sealioning rules in the larger community I help mod.

Holding these two competing thoughts, I think that points of view that run (edit: contrary) to the current scientific understanding should not be removed provided that the quantity is limited, it’s respectful and it’s not-harmful. But that’s just my perspective, and how we handle it in the communities I mod. The beauty of the fediverse is that I also have no problems with someone setting up a competing community that takes a much less tolerant perspective and has a rule that participation is conditional on agreement to certain perspectives.