Exactly what I thought.

The beginning of the end of the free and open internet was the rise of the walled garden. The final nail in the coffin is that every search result for "independent blogs" and "free and open internet" these days goes to politically challenged morons like this.

Simply put, the people running their own websites and blogs aren't "normal" anymore. The "normal" people are on the big platforms, unfortunately.

Despite its faults, what makes HN different is that it has principled moderators.