It's not about the individual or the topic. We don't want HN to be that kind of community.
This genuinely makes me think less of HN.
I mean, I've seen what Reddit turned into (it was always there, but I saw it spread outside of the meme subs). I saw how 4chan started. I saw how Twitter started and somehow managed to keep lowering the bar.
People chastised "tone policing" in the 00's and I was a part of that. But I've seen enough trainwrecks in real time to accept it as a necessary step to stop history from repeating itself and lowering the quality of the discussion.
And honestly, it's never necessary: Does calling someone an idiot really advance the conversation in a way that a detailed criticism of the subject wouldn't?