As someone else said, it's a hot-button issue that brings out a vocal minority of the insecure and/or deliberate trolls. I know it's ugly, but please consider sticking around to try to help.
Before resorting to name calling ("troll") or useless stereotyping ("the insecure") of people disagreeing with you please try to understand what some of these people are trying to say. I don't think the comments made by ravetkn and obstacle1, for example, do not quite fit the typical troll pattern.
This is a grown up forum, differing view points should be securely discussable, including race and gender issues. AFAIK, offensive comments were made by users on "both sides" (whatever that means in this case).
The problem is that people come from the angle of "we hold these truth to be self evident" and/or universal and become upset when people try o argue on the contrary. This is normal human nature, but on HN we should be able to do better.
Before resorting to name calling ("troll") or useless stereotyping ("the insecure") of people disagreeing with you please try to understand what some of these people are trying to say
I never said that absolutely everyone who disagrees with me is a troll, or insecure, or both, I'm saying that these threads tend to bring out some terrible behavior from a vocal minority. That's not a controversial position.
I want, more than anything, a meaningful discussion on these issues. I also know that "But what if I had a conference FOR JUST MEN? What about that, you SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR?!" isn't meaningful discussion at this point.
This is a grown up forum, differing view points should be securely discussable, including race and gender issues. AFAIK, offensive comments were made by users on "both sides" (whatever that means in this case).
The problem is that people come from the angle of "we hold these truth to be self evident" and/or universal and become upset when people try o argue on the contrary. This is normal human nature, but on HN we should be able to do better.