Instead, we're drinking tea in the middle of the brier patch.
I was actually thinking the opposite. I come here for news and articles relating to technology start ups, and this thread shows how far off track hacker news has gotten.
It's not that I don't appreciate this sort of discussion. I like the openness of asking these questions. It's just that I can go to any corner of the internet with a forum and see most of the same.
They say you're not supposed to discuss religion and politics, I'd personally prefer to keep to this guide, and we don't see much of politics here.
That advice is for situations where you need to "just get along", but it's an actively harmful stance if you're trying to seek truth, understand reality, fight regressive politics, etc.
Fuck the man
By that, specifically, I mean that a mysterious ethereal social convention is not a good reason for me to do or not do something, especially on the internet.
Site guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
This discussion, however, is pure fluff. I equate it to the videos of pratfalls and cute animal pictures that the guidelines admonish against.