The greatest enemy of upending norms and forging new territory isn't people who are stuck to the old ways, but people who promote or apologize for objectively bad things just because they are new or edgy. When people hype things that stink they obscure things that are actually better and justify others sticking with the tried and true.
Sometimes a new thing is just bad and saying you think so can add value to the world -- especially in environments where there are potentially billions of dollars in incentives for people to hype otherwise.
> stated mission of upending norms and forging new territory
HN has no such stated mission. But even if it did, that doesn't mean that every upending of a norm or forging of new territory would be view uncritically. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and new things aren't always better than the old.
Sometimes a new thing is just bad and saying you think so can add value to the world -- especially in environments where there are potentially billions of dollars in incentives for people to hype otherwise.