It's not just the permanent "loading" overlay that makes it feel hostile. I feel genuinely uncomfortable reading that website; nothing stays still, the content is jammed in the corner and the scrolling physics have been messed with.
It's somehow the epitome of claustrophobic design and interaction.
I mechanically translate "qz.com" into "don't even look at it until I hit View->Page Style->No Style". It's still ugly, but at least the content isn't fighting for space with all of that other... what is all of that stuff, anyway?
I wonder if there's a way to make that stick for all pages on a domain. (Firefox)
It's somehow the epitome of claustrophobic design and interaction.