Maybe... At least I've got the impression that on HN reactions are way more professional, I see people here actually listening to the arguments of others and that's the least you need to keep things quiet.
Most people here keep extremism out here anyway. Emotional arguments don't succeed to gain traction, you have to be factual and nuanced to gain respect here, and as far as I see blind extremism doesn't get that far.
Is the point not valid? If you want to avoid mentioning... "it", you could simply say that without imposing some rules/order, random internet discussion of politics degrades fairly rapidly.
Yeah, it's not valid, because it's an appeal-to-reverse-authority. And to top it off, that authority is rooted in snootiness, which is my least favorite form of bogus authority.
If you have something to say, say it. Reddit's probably irrelevant, and for the record, for any population, there's a lot of people smarter than you and me. Particularly if you and I are engaging in lazy categorization.
It's not an appeal to anything: it's an observation of my years on the internet: politics discussions on the internet go downhill quickly. Where do you think "Godwin's Law" came from?
After all, this whole discussion is attached to a story about how a group of people took the time, because of their political motivations, to attempt to "attack" another group of people on a web site. Seems like pretty lame behavior to me.
Sorry, as a Flash supporter I've often encountered the opposite experience on HN. Logical arguments supporting Flash are pushed down into the neg, while profanity-laden anti-Flash rants score high.
I'd argue that HN's professionalism is due to the fact that most of us use our real names (or at least make it easy for people to identify us) and most of the other commenters here are potential future colleagues.
I'm just as guilty as the next person of saying something rude on HN every now and then, but for the most part I and I suspect most others do our best to make substantive contributions to the discussions here.
Most people here keep extremism out here anyway. Emotional arguments don't succeed to gain traction, you have to be factual and nuanced to gain respect here, and as far as I see blind extremism doesn't get that far.