He was surprisingly nasty about it, but I wouldn't bother fighting back. A lot of the people who voted up his comment didn't do it because they agreed with him so much as because they're worried you'll start a trend of people posting stuff trying to suck up to us. Which is actually a reasonable thing to worry about, considering that a significant number of HN users think they might one day apply to YC. So you were basically just unlucky.
It happens to us all I guess, sometimes it's too much coffee too early in the day or someone hits a soft spot.
It's easy to misinterpret what people say on the net.
FWIW I too had a very positive superficial read of Arc when it was first published and I'm neither a fanboy nor a Lisp newbie. Scheme is one of my true loves.
I have a desire to not just stand here and take it on the chin as mahmud publicly proclaims that I'm pandering, a Lisp newbie, irrational, a blind fanboy, hypocritical, dismissive, and unfair. On the other hand I don't want to waste everyone's time with a tedious flamewar.
Thoughts?