Part of it is just being on the internet, part of it is people jaded by the attitudes, ideas and conversations popular on HN. Arrogance and over-generalization

Part of it is just being on the internet, part of it is people jaded by the attitudes, ideas and conversations popular on HN. Arrogance and over-generalization in posts cause backlash. Ownership by a venture fund, and a userbase centralized in the bay area emphasize a very narrow set of views over a wide array of topics. Regardless of accuracy of views, they tend to escape introspection and/or proper contextualization. There are even twitter accounts and subreddits dedicated to reposting/mocking the absolute nonsense that passes for conventional wisdom here. So disagreement happens and there will be 1 to N participants that "know" they're "right" and make conversation impossible. People also put their personal reputation on the line by associating their account with their real identity and can't back down or be made the fool. People with business goals to advance try to manipulate the conversation to do so. In disagreement some play to the refs rather than prove a point. These are just some thoughts, there is more to say, but I don't care to write any more.