I don't see anyone assuming that or assuming that upvotes mean anything. The comments that reference this (and they are legion) universally disdain them, put down others for groupthink, and so on. This is a variant of Russell conjugation: I am a noble freethinker standing bravely against the mob, while others are a gullible internet horde echoing each other. That's why we have a guideline that asks people not to sneer at the rest of the community—it's off topic and makes for boring threads.

Articles on HN's front page don't have to be right, or even not-batshit-crazy—they just have to be interesting and able to support interesting conversation. There are quite a few interesting subthreads in this case, so it worked.

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