Some people (granted, I remember reading this on Reddit) consider Hacker News to be full of right wing chuds. I personally just found it to be pretty full of techbros and programmers who were weirdly up themselves the last few times I tried to use it. r/programmingcirclejerk was basically all Hacker News comments lol

Same opinion I have of it, too techbro. Easier to avoid those circles on a federated site.

Its still alive and well. Its generally less memey and focuses on a higher quality of discourse. Its a different environment that can still be fun but its definitely brainier. Nothing wrong with engaging intelligent people, it makes you smarter.