"you're just saying people are evil!" is a rather banal dodge of the entire thesis of the article, that the system is indeed ineffective and cruel. It's using

"you're just saying people are evil!" is a rather banal dodge of the entire thesis of the article, that the system is indeed ineffective and cruel. It's using rules-lawyerism to suppress a point that you find too uncomfortable to address with an actual argument. Frankly this is sort of a recurring theme on HN, where people tend to lapse into meta-argument or tone argument as a substitute for substantive discussion. It's a matter of degree but at some point these tactics do become a logical fallacy, it's a very enticing way to shut down an argument that you can't directly counter.