why is this even on HN?
Of course, those comments trigger angry reflexes in others, so we're in a flamewar before curious conversation has had a chance to put its boots on. Blaming "HN" for this is a red herring—the overwhelming majority of HN readers and commenters are doing nothing of the sort, and some of them have interesting things to say about barber shops.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
There's a balance to be struck: I don't like the idea that the extremists determine what interesting content is permissible to discuss on HN. But while bringing attention to and discussing this article is good for consciousness-raising, I think this polarising process is damaging HN.