Is YouTube trying to sow chaos in the comment section?

So, to preface this, it's pretty well-known that YT comments disappearing is a common issue. I know that channels can have a list of banned words/phrases that will automatically block comments containing those. I could be wrong, but don't think this is that. Also, yes, the comments in question here are political in nature, but trying to impose my political views is not the purpose of this post. Lastly, if you're going to check out the video comments, please don't bother the other commenters. That's not what I'm trying to achieve here.

Yesterday I replied to a comment on this video by NY Times. Specifically it was in the thread for the comment "Democracy dies in stupidity." I've since lost my original reply, but it was something along the lines of "America is in for a bad time. Good luck guys." So I get the usual rigmarole: receive a thread reply notification, check thread to read new reply, and notice that there are no replies from me in that thread. Okay, this happens all the time. I drop my usual reply complaining about how YT removes comments seemingly at random. This one stays up. I wake up today with a direct reply notification, and this person is accusing me of using hateful language/rhetoric because that's what the automod does. Okay, no biggie. I just drop a reply clarifying that comments get deleted all the time, and it's not necessarily because of hateful stuff. This one does not stay up.

No, I said something about how this is a bad time for America and wished Americans good luck. Youtube just likes to make comments disappear. It happens in benign non-political convos too, but more often in political ones.

Have you really never received a thread reply notification only to see your comment isn't there? Also, notice how there are still hateful comments in other threads? In YouTube's eyes, hateful rhetoric is okay, but talking about oligarchy in the US is a 50/50 ticket to shadowban town.

Something really irked me about it this time. Why do genuinely racist or misinforming comments stay up while benign ones get removed? I wondered about what could be triggering automod on my replies. Maybe the word "oligarchy" or "shadowban" is doing it? So I tried editing my reply down to it's bare bones. Nothing worked. I thought that maybe I had too many comments on the video, so I tried deleting all my other comments, to no avail. I still couldn't reply. I then tried to reply with "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," which stayed up. I tried editing it to replace it with my earnest reply, and it immediately vanished. At some point, I just gave up and replied with "Wong, but go off." This one stays up. This is frustrating, because I never wanted to come off as rude or dismissive.

I've considered that pasting in the comment box might trigger automod, but then again, the typed-up comments get removed too. I've considered that maybe an extension is causing the issue, so I disabled all my extensions, but the problem persisted. I tried replying in a different browser and even on a different device, all to no effect. In fact, I think I've considered all the possible issues and ways to trigger automod, and none of them are consistent with when my comments do/don't get posted.

So, I have no proof of this. This is all based on my experience, but is it possible that YT is removing comments that don't align with a particular direction of conversation? It feels like YT wants me to argue with people. In fact, I feel like (not just on this particular video) anytime I go against the grain of the conversation or voice my opinion on something contentious, my comment gets removed. I feel like this issue has been getting worse and worse over time. Actually, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills... like I'm being gaslit by YT.

If anyone can share their experiences with comment removal, I'd really appreciate it. I want to know what you think about this. If you have a possible explanation for what's going on here, please share it. YT's lack of transparency in how or why they moderate the way they do makes it feel like there is some deliberate agenda with the flow of information on their site.

Thanks for reading and/or replying.