I think you make a good point. While I know that HN doesn't like meme's popping up in the comments, I think that these situations are really well described by

I think you make a good point. While I know that HN doesn't like meme's popping up in the comments, I think that these situations are really well described by one phrase: "haters gonna hate" There are just people out that that are angry at something (life, job, ...) and they seem to like venting by writing stupid emails or comments to people the usually have never met in person. I think that most of the sexism, racism, *-ism is just the easiest way of trying to hurt somebody emotionally. They're just going for a cheap shot. As long as it's not institutionalized by policies, I think the best thing to do is not even dignifying that with a response. You certainly can't have a discussion with those kinds of "fundamentalists" when their goal is not a discussion about gender/race/religion/... but rather to get people upset.