HN leans left? If anything in my view it leans hardcore free market libertarian/"move fast and break things". Individual people may hold common "liberal" political views like supporting gay rights, the right to abortion but on economics issues and things like government regulation of huge tech, HN is basically indistinguishable from Peter Thiel.

Note that actual leftism is not the same thing as modern liberalism. By the economics textbook definition of the term Ronald Reagan was a modern Liberal.