Snark is not a virtue limited to tech journalists. My significant other is a journalist (outside of tech), so we have lots of journalist friends. They are hands down the snarkiest people I know.
Sounds like you just described every HN comment ever: 'Oh, you understand red-black trees and just scanned two Wikipedia articles? Let me hear more about your theories on political economy and your pronouncements on environmental policy regarding the Amazon...'
One person's "superficial understanding of lots of things" is another person's deep understanding of how humans act and how they rationalize their actions, regardless of domain.
It kind of comes with the territory.