Up until the last few years, opinions not supported by science would be quickly down voted to nonexistence on Hacker News. The discourse remained high level enough to dissuade people who don't know what they're talking about from participating. Something has unfortunately changed recently. I have my thoughts on what is causing this, but one thing is for sure - Dang's job has gotten exponentially more difficult in recent years if he wants HN to remain a bastion of elevated discussion on the internet.