Erik R.
This is either going to be Reddit for very smart people, or Twitter for the alt right. Let's see which way it goes.
Jayden
I would say that a low percentage of HN is alt right but that both HN and the alt right are largely overly online young men. The thing is you don't need much political extreme to start a landslide in one direction. Things are a little more X here than elsewhere, some people that don't like that leave, some people that do like that show up because of it, things are even more X, repeat.
😾 Oskar
Wasn't there some Taleb essay about 4% of population being extremist enough to make whole nation extremist? Seems very intuitive if thought in context of network science. Explains why Twitter turned into pretty much private network of already well connected people.
Mihail
I like to think of them - as a group - as people with above average intelligence who value critical thinking above all else. A certain degree of liberalism on social issues, emphasis on individual & economic freedom, aversion to political correctness. The best of all worlds really.
☕ Christopher
Yeah, I agree with this assessment. While generalizations are inherently inaccurate your comment best describes the majority of the HN community I'm familiar with. We can only guess the motive to disingenuously correlate HN with the alt-right. I think that perhaps some people have a conditioned emotional response when presented with the idea of aversion to political correctness.