Or maybe the recent resurgence of Javascript frameworks in Web, desktop and mobiles is a plot of Russians to slow the computing and software engineering for the westerners by manipulating online tech communities?
Having your posts yelled at and downvoted can reduce your willingness to participate in discussion or debate. Especially when there's a stupid "karma" score that subconsciously gamifies our participation here.
I'd be willing to bet that having one's opinions silenced online trains one to stop talking about the same topics offline as well. Like a sort of conditioning.
And there are lots of powerful parties that want to silence certain opinions.
Why on HN? Because of the abundance of smart, wealthy, influential, and well-connected people here. Change these people, and your social engineering ripples throughout society.
You can care about it and avoid posting things that irks the herd or you can not care about it and voice it anyway.
You can either derive reward by being socially accepted or by promoting your own views and opinions.