You're a highly reputable security expert and founder of a highly reputable security business. You have enormous credibility with the HN crowd and outside of it

You're a highly reputable security expert and founder of a highly reputable security business. You have enormous credibility with the HN crowd and outside of it (hell, you're the top commenter on https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders by karma, by 70'000 points!). But with every one of these comments in which you defend these people for no reason other than wordplay you lose a little bit of that reputation, at least with me. You seem to be worried that people will be persuaded by tptacek just because he's tptacek, rather than by the content of his comments. But, somewhat ironically, you're helping that process along by being so emotional when countering his arguments. E.g. I wouldn't want to associate myself with what you're advocating: "Don't think. Trust your feelings." So even if there's some truth to what you say, it's obscured by the way you're expressing it. EDIT: I've figured out what's upsetting about this exchange. You're not trying to change his mind. That would require you give him some credit, and you seem unable to. You're just trying to attack him (poorly). If forum members don't resist that sort of feeling, then forums will degenerate into flamewars. Therefore what you're doing now is poisonous to HN.