Moderators will look at overt discrimination very harshly. Blatant forms of racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other sort of hatred towards a group of people(s) will not be tolerated, and will be met with firm moderation.

well ill be blunt here, i hope the moderators actually pay attention to comments about muslims, arabs or middle easterns in general. while i dont usually enter political threads to stay away from these comments, at times i do. and the number of misinformed, blantantly wrong or just flat out offensive comments. personally ill stay away from these threads, but there is a good number of people who are from those groups that i mentioned that might be in those threads, and get offended by them. 

I think the explain and justify your opinions part kind of covers that. If people are saying just yes or no then they aren't explaining anything. The "Do you own any video game consoles?" question could be answered with other negatives such as 'not any more but I used to...' or 'no but I'm quite interested in...' or 'no, because...' and various other answers like that.

But then there is the argument of who needs to explain their reasoning behind a yes/no answer to a yes/no question. Ultimately, I agree that what you're saying should occur, but it would be simpler to impose a minimum amount of words rule instead of threatening with action for answering yes/no to a closed-ended question.

"Inciting abuse or harassment - of anyone. This includes attempting to discredit any user based on their preferences."

So dismissing a user's argument on the grounds that they are or are not a fan of the object of discussion is flaming?

1. Substance. Content is king for all posts and threads. Threads breaking the following rules and/or lacking content can and will be locked. Some tips to keep you and your posts out of trouble:
   • Poster Above You threads, Voting threads, Elimination threads, and the like require moderator approval. If you do not have it, the thread will be locked, and if you are a repeat offender, you will be moderated. Note that an approved thread may still be locked by the Lead Moderators.
   • Other things to avoid (the following can be moderated):
     • Do not only post a link, or a copy-pasted article. At the very least avoid committing plagiarism by giving credit to the original author of the piece. Providing original context or commentary is also highly encouraged.
     • Do not say that item A sucks, or that item B is better than item C. Give reasons why, and provide evidence (articles, screenshots, technical information, even opinion etc).
     • Do not reply to other posters with simply "you're wrong" or by calling them a fanboy, idiot, troll (or any other sort of name calling).
     • Avoid "In Before The Lock" (IBTL) posts.
     • Do not posts spoilers unless you have CLEARLY marked them as such - if necessary using the ?spoiler' tool in "styles." Be sensible here. The plot twist in The Empire Strikes Back is not a spoiler. The plot twist in BioShock is.
     • Threads sometimes naturally transition to new discussions, but try to stay on topic as much as possible.
     • Quote trees should be no longer than three posts.

If I understand correctly, you are free to dismiss their argument on whatever grounds you want, as long as you don't do it verbally. If you tell them you're dismissing their argument because they're a fanboy (or the like) then that violates this rule:

Correct. Pointing out the reason why a user's argument is garbage is now considered flaming, true to the belief that a spade shouldn't be called a spade and users who get easily butthurt need to be protected, so that they can they spew more worthless rubbish without fear of any consequences for them.

I've had to deal with comments like this in the past, so I don't mind this rule: "You haven't played the game. You have a Pokemon avatar. I think its safe to say you have no right to be judging this game this harshly. You're being way too critical. Here's a thought: keep your opinions to yourself. Unless you've played the game, your opinions on the game are irrelevant."