[abracadaniel]

This is a more articulate description of something I’ve been thinking of for a while. Tweets, and maybe just internet comments in general, are like a stream of consciousness momentary thought response. Rarely is it a fully formed opinion, but instead it’s an instantaneous opinion that might have left as quickly as it came. Someone insults my cup holders, and I kind of like my car, the cup holders are fine, but for an instant I feel slighted. Then I see they have so many upvotes, and their wrong opinion is being spread. Now it’s my duty to inform the world of the quality of these cup holders, and defend my honor. They can’t just be wrong, they have to be completely wrong, so out comes the exaggerated response. And then, as quickly as it came on, it’s forgotten, and I don’t even notice the next time I use the cup holders that they are kinda shit.

[Retric]

That’s common, but it’s also an artifact of how few topics people are experts in.

The chances of two people on HN happening to both be experts in superconductors or even condensed matter physics / automotive design / … is higher than normal. But there’s a rapid drop off in expertise so most people commenting don’t really understand the specifics.

So, rather than people arguing about the tradeoffs of cup holder placement and material choices etc it just devolves into “Ug like tribe! Things good! Back off!”

[jacquesm]

With Tesla it seems to revolve around who has Tesla stock, who drives one, who doesn't and who doesn't have Tesla stock and then finally there is your personal attitude towards Elon Musk. That gives you an eight way fight with every faction behaving utterly predictable. I suggest we enumerate the factions and add them to our bios that way we can at least discount that factor.