I've noticed the fringe hot takes tends to occur around this time of day on HN, which is 5am in SV (some of us wake up very early to run/bike without getting run over, as well as answer EMEA emails).
Most users at this time of day are European (who tend to be German, Eastern European, and British ime) and some East Coasters.
Mainstream HN doesn't kick in until 4-5 hours from now.
I have no idea what GP was trying to say with his "it's mostly European users" comment, but as a European who does worry about climate change, I don't think that climate change denialism is somehow less extreme in the US than in Europe.
I agree that the tone shifts depending on the user base, but your comment appears to imply that there are more fringe takes when European users are online. I don't think that's the case and I also wouldn't know why Europeans are somehow more fringe (we do tend to have different cultural expectations, but "climate change denialism" is, I think, not one of them).
I didn't mean that Europeans make more fringe takes. I think the rate is consistent with American users.
IMO, the difference is there is less usage during peak EMEA hours, which makes fringe takes more prominent and visible, but by the time West Coast is using HN, that is peak overlap time for all users of HN globally.
They just reflexively think the consensus view is wrong because daddy Thiel said you can make big money that way.
“The Contrarians”, of course, is its own silly tribe of lemmings that produces its opinions from its identity first and foremost.