Clearly raised to a higher peak by taking one of the words of a statement most easy to misread for the sake of outrage, and highlighting it, whilst ignoring the substance of the comment.

Babbage was insulting politicians who had, in the instance of his insult, a better grasp on the nature of intelligence than he had. It is a foolish quote to repeat, and reeks of the same smug obliviousness in which it was said.

If Babbage was fit to be so smug, he is fit to be called an idiot when having been so foolishly.

"Peak HN" is presumably when you can cite an oblivious smarter-than-thou Engineer at his most inastute, but not call one an idiot.