Not limited to Hacker News. Other forums I participate in have seen parallel shifts downward in civility. Some of it is generational. For better or worse younger generations often see strident online discourse as totally different than how you would treat a person irl. Older folks have less of a sense of separate worlds there.

In general anonymous commenting was cool for a while but seems to be leading to negative results most places. I’m ready to engage with forums limited to verified real people ex specific situations where personal safety might be at risk (and I’m not in any of those myself now or in the past).