They are linked in the footer appearing on nearly every page of HN (and have been for years). Comments about downvotes are explicitly addressed in them, so not much room for interpretation there either.
That quote is an argument for why "not mentioned in the guidelines doesn't mean it is acceptable behavior", it's not saying that no written-down rules exist.
Do what you gotta do, dang, according to you're taste. According to my taste, flagging on a polite and irrefutable comment is what's uncivil and/or unsusbstantive. There's no recourse other than to say something so that's what I gotta do. Thanks.
The controversial statement that started this was:
> Perhaps rather anecdotal, but this is why I joined Uber, and did not take my Facebook or Google offers. It feels nice to work on tech that directly impacts lives and how a persons day flows. As opposed to, as you correctly put it, optimizing click bait.
