It's sometimes helpful, actually. Virtually any comment critical of Google gets downvote aggressively. I suspect that's a lot of Googlers reading Hacker News (w

It's sometimes helpful, actually. Virtually any comment critical of Google gets downvote aggressively. I suspect that's a lot of Googlers reading Hacker News (who drank the coolaid) rather than an intentional astroturf campaign, but in either case, I've noticed a comment like that tends to help. It prevents the kneejerk "You criticised my employer/community/ego, so I'll downvote you" reaction, and sometimes leads to a bit more critical thought.