"Ars readers are very reddit-like"
How can you know? I think you mean most reddit commentors are very reddit like (nowdays I tend to agree). I read Ars from time to time, but I never commented there. But still, when I read comments, I don't get the impression that Berger is close of getting fired.
> How can you know?
They don't know; their whole comment is just empty insults about simpeltons. If anything should have the derision that "slop" gets, it should be the thousands of comments like that which hit HN every day.
It's a little thing called reading. I read Are comments, I read reddit comments, and I judge them to both be a bunch of morons who are perpetually suspicious of nuance.