I agree with this. Some communities have taken this so far to be completely toxic (again, reddit). HN isn't that bad yet, but it's sad that people conflate cynicism with being "realistic" or "knowledgeable and worldly".

I've noticed this in the EU/US divide. Anything pessimistic in Europe is deemed smart and cool, and Americans are looked upon as native as dumb for their general optimism.

Then again Europeans also hate how much "moaning" goes on amongst themselves. Honestly it's easy to be down on everything all the time, try being an optimist these days. Not exactly easy.

It’s easy to find something to criticise, knowing what’s good about something or adding a constructive thought requires knowledge of the problem your product is trying to solve or the tech behind it. Fewer people have the latter.

In other words: pointing out a problem is easy. Finding a solution (and being able to actually get it done), much harder.