It's intellectually dishonest, particularly when baseless speculation is framed by an "it looks like."
It crowds out fact-driven discussion.
It's disrespectful and potentially hurtful.
It could be mistaken for informed commentary, in which case it's misleading. (When I’ve done it, the first victim is myself.)
And to top it off, it's useless. Totally useless. Nobody walks away with a deeper understanding. No new perspectives. Just screaming into a void.
Observations are useful. Even mistaken ones.
Saying "It looks like..." is stating a fact. What else is someone supposed to say if that’s what it looks like to them?
It doesn't crowd out "fact-driven discussion".
It's not disrespectful or potentially harmful.
Anything could be mistaken, even empirical evidence. Even what you think is a fact...can be wrong.
> And to top it off, it's useless. Totally useless. Nobody walks away with a deeper understanding. No new perspectives. Just screaming into a void.
That's you. You're being ridiculous. You're over-reacting. You haven't produced any evidence to backup your opinion that speculation is harmful or crowds out your so-called "fact-driven" discussion, or that what is said here on HN has any effect whatsoever on anything going on with this story. Just stop it.