I don't think stories can get voted down (at least for me no down-arrow is displayed). In any case, I disagree with the "the people have spoken" argument. It b

I don't think stories can get voted down (at least for me no down-arrow is displayed). In any case, I disagree with the "the people have spoken" argument. It boils down to "if you don't like it, then leave". It should be the other way round: if you want to discuss this, then use another forum. HN has a certain purpose, even if it's not completely well-defined. It follows that there are stories that should be deemed off-topic, regardless of whether a large minority votes them up. I'm not talking about the on-topic-ness of this particular story (though I'd say it's off-topic even though I am a fan of Hitchens), but trying to defend the notion that it's fine to complain about highly upvoted off-topic stories. PS: a related comment of mine in a recent thread on Stackoverflow: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506