The mods did well there, I agree, but it was the top-voted comment for a fair while (most of the working day, European time). Perhaps that says something about European vs. American attitudes on such thing, I dunno (I'm European).
I haven't had higher quality discussion with this many people anywhere else on the internet. Sometimes there are not so great comment threads, sometimes people decide to take things too seriously and fail to pick up on humor... but generally I think this is a great place.
HN mods responded, the comment was flagged and killed and downvoted to hell.
Also, the way it was written may not have been the way he intended to come across. Read dang's comment, as well as his downthread comment.
All things considered, HN is definitely not a bad place.