There is a great tradition of elitism and disdain for banality among intellectuals. Think of impressionists circle in the early XXs century, most of these guys'

There is a great tradition of elitism and disdain for banality among intellectuals. Think of impressionists circle in the early XXs century, most of these guys' paintings are fetching millions today, but during their lifetime they were poor bastards most of the time. Influential - yes, popular - not. At least not immediately. It is almost by definition that any fresh and promising idea meets hostility from the masses. But the thinking minority is always ecstatic about it. Good ideas and views are like a breath of fresh air. HN has been a refuge for new and controversial ideas from the start. Which is understandable, given that pg himself created quite a stir with his view on 'hackers' as artists and on lisp as an abstract essence of any programming language (making it a superweapon in right hands). So people escaped from reddit and digg and came to HN to share controversial or complicated ideas. At that time karma points were a badge of honour. But then of course in came the masses and HN has changed. Now arguments don't win on their merit. Banalities are repeated ad nauseam and the winner is the one who can capture the crowd's lowest common denominator. HN is not that much about ideas anymore. It is more about commercial promotion and quite a lot about entertainment. In this environment positive karma should make you worried. I actually quite enjoy getting negative karma nowadays. Of course there is a huge risk of being labeled a 'troll'. It has happened a couple of times. Which I think is as honorable as being labeled a dissident in communist Russia or a non-believer in fundamentalist Iran. Just make sure you are 'trolling' by challenging a consensus while having sound arguments and facts at hand. <sigh> But not many people cannot even read your arguments after they fade to gray under merciless and mindless downvoting.