alt Hacker NewsYes, because the comments are offtopic and against the site guidelines (see the bottom of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
"I the noble freethinker, standing bravely against the mob" comments are boring and repetitive, and therefore always off topic.
It's exactly my point that it's impossible to be critical of these guidelines on here, and I think that's a problem.