[stinkbeetle]

> They've been around forever

That is "HN". HN is the people who read and post here.

> Those people also get down voted to oblivion. Their text is gray. I can't read it unless I click the timestamp.

I'm sure some are but quite a few are not because I have been able to see them quite a lot without clicking.

> Yes, sometimes they can be combative and inflammatory. But even the ones that are otherwise reasonable get down voted because how dare we insult capitalism and billionaires?

I must say that I have never seen that happen, but I don't tend to trawl through a lot of hidden comments. There certainly seem to be some favored billionaires who might upset people to criticize here. Trump is obviously not among them.