Why does everyone on Hacker News talk like Christopher Hitchens?

Question

I've noticed during my time here on HN, people are so articulate, and talk/write a bit like Christopher Hitchens[0]. I mean, when you contrast the comments here to Reddit, there's a stark difference in writing style, choice of wording, tone, etcIt's as if everyone on HN is following the meme of: 'Be articulate or get downvoted'> Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 &ndash; 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature.As an example of the way Christopher Hitchens talks, here's a talk on YouTube entitled `Christopher Hitchens warns about Vladimir Putin`:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83OY6De6Ob4Does anyone agree? Does he talk the way people write their comments on HN?[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

brodouevencode · Accepted Answer

HackerNews tends to attract professional, technical-minded individuals that are typically open to outside ideas and countering points of view. This results in being able to politely and articulately defend your opinions because HackerNews wants to enforce this polite society (I've gotten warnings from @dang before). Now to compare anyone here to Hitchens is near flattery, but there are some comments here that you could see Hitchens saying. There are some very smart people here.With respect to Reddit, it is a cesspool. It is as simple as that.

WalterGR · Answer

At minimum, HNers take the site guidelines pretty seriously: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

incomingpain · Answer

>I've noticed during my time here on HN, people are so articulate, and talk/write a bit like Christopher Hitchens[0].
He was definitely a hero of mine.
>I mean, when you contrast the comments here to Reddit, there's a stark difference in writing style, choice of wording, tone, etc
This probably has to do with HN's intention of how they wished to form the HN echo chamber.
>It's as if everyone on HN is following the meme of: 'Be articulate or get downvoted'
This is less about the echo chamber but rather much akin to Hitchens' way. Imagine you're an atheist where only like 1% of the world is atheistic and Christianity is still a powerhouse. You also have multiple rather contradicting political viewpoints. So you have to be eloquent, patient, and explanatory.
You learn that this isn't about politics, ideology, etc. It's about talking to the other person, mr bickerton. It's not about getting a win for your team. It's about saying stupid stuff and see why you're wrong.
Free speech doesn't exist in my country, and the importance of free speech is to enable the possibility of sorting out your brain. I don't care who you talk to, there's nobody who has figured out every political position they support.
The way you figure out your own politics is by talking to people with opposing views. Hope they tell you how you're getting it wrong. It's even very effective to play devils advocate. You're going to say things that are wrong and only through saying wrong things will you find your way to what is right.
Unfortunately we are living in the world of echo chambers and anti-free speech. If you dare be conservative on reddit you'll get banned in a heartbeat. Do you think anyone of reddit has any chance of sorting out their mind via free speech on there? How about twitter where my account said nothing, retweeted nothing, but I got ghostbanned because of likes and/or the people i follow. Clear simple conservative censorship.
This is the point of elon musk buying it. He wants to eliminate the censorship and get people talking again.