Observe this thread for dozens of examples of comments that just aren't high enough quality to be on this site:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5453757

Anger, silly jokes, one-liners and memes are all over that thread. The fact that so much of it will still be there at the end of the day is the problem we're facing.

Compare to the discussion on this item, with people stating real arguments using entire paragraphs. Plenty of disagreement, certainly some negativity, but mostly civil (or greyed out).

So no, we're not trying to get rid of negativity. We're just trying to maintain a place where adults can hold civil conversation.