"Just imagine what would happen if these people started forcefully expressing and defending their views on this thread?"

The best way to avoid this fate is to flag such articles into oblivion.

"Anything from the New Yorker is basically automatically on topic because of its intellectual weight."

That's the stupidest rationale for a submission I've ever read on HN. What is "on topic" for an HN submission has nothing to do with who wrote it. And no one has automatic "intellectual weight" for anything they write.

The fact that you have to make such a logic free statement indicates that you know you are trolling/ karma whoring.

I guess it is fine to occasionally test the strength of HN's immune system.