After thinking it over, I'm persuaded by the users who argued that this story is intellectually and historically interesting and therefore deserves a thread on HN – as long as it can stay out of flamewar. If you're going to comment, please make sure you're posting in the intended spirit of intellectual curiosity, and please avoid the shallow, tropey, flamebaity style.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: I know that (as of this moment) the story may have passed its sensational peak - if so, that's a good thing on HN. We're trying for reflective, not reflexive, conversation here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor....