Yes, seriously. It's just a word, like "sis" or "gal" or "the", and has no inherent negative or positive connotations.
Somebody has invented drama around this word, some other people have bought into it, and now more people are just trying to stir it up again because Hacker News has somehow gone a whole two days without senseless bickering.
> has no inherent negative or positive connotations.
That's not how 'connotation' works.
Denotatively, it's meaningless. Connotatively, it's turned into a pretty objectionable term, in my opinion.