Yes, most people there are normal. I come to HN for interesting insight from a certain perspective... not for the average opinion of the population, which you're much more likely to find on X.

Most normal people that have a noticeable internet presence are there, as are those that would like to avoid places like Reddit, Truth Social or BlueSky which either have been founded as, or have became tribal drum houses.

These days, I feel like it might even be better than HN, due to both HN decaying a bit (it's still strong) and X getting better, especially due to a better fitting algorithm that gets me all relevant industry stuff while not having massive deadspots.