[kragen]

Agreed, but most of my own reluctance to engage comes not from the generally low intellectual level of the commentary but from the pervasive character assassination that accompanies it.

Some of this is a result of importing the culture-war mentality that destroyed Twitter, but some of it is not; see how often the word "disingenuous" gets posted, generally as an assertion that the parent commenter must be a liar because they couldn't possibly be so stupid as to believe what they wrote. That's pure native HN viciousness, not a Twitter import.