Comment by troad

This is spot on and has really reduced my willpower to post, tbh.

Like begets like. A glib and snarky comment gets an emotional response, leading to quick, emotional votes. A nuanced, thoughtful comment gets the reader to think, but that's rarely conducive to upvotes unless they were already in agreement.

Over time everyone is Pavlovian-conditioned by the dopamine hit of upvotes to stick with the glib and snarky comments.

The whole upvote system is just a slow-acting poison that inevitably destroys any online community. HN has fared better than most, thanks to great moderation, but it won't resist forever.