I agree that it's important to learn these lessons, but if recent history has taught us anything it's that reach and amplification will drown out most voices of reason.

I think Vimes might have had an aphorism about this...

EDIT: aphorism, not proverb

True, but at the same time, it is difficult to overlook the weight of Yale, the fact that this was published there, had I not found it so intriguing that I wanted to see what others were saying about it I would not have fact checked it.

"A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.”—Mark Twain

This is a glorious example of that.

Sure, it is generally wise to keep your guard up when reading things on the internet (or any source). That's fair enough. But at the same time, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect HN posts to adhere to a higher standard. IMO HN is not the appropriate forum for pseudo-intellectual gotchas.