Comparing a few paragraphs of HN comment to the Nobel prize in literature is just bizarre. I'm not surprised people assumed it must be sarcastic. Or if you put that aside, then it seems to disparage the Nobel prize. It's just such a hyperbolic claim without any rhetorical purpose and doesn't make any sense. I'm happy the commenter was so moved though...

The Nobel prize self disparaged when they gave the Peace one to a guy that later went to bomb seven countries: https://theintercept.com/2014/09/23/nobel-peace-prize-fact-d...

Long, long before that, when they gave it to a guy who intentionally prolonged the Vietnam War and ordered the bombing of civilians in a country not even involved in the war. https://12ft.io/proxy?&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F20...

The flavor of Reddit in the humor. “Epic.”

Would it be more HN appropriate had he said "your writing helped me grok your mom's disorder?"

Genuinely, yes, I think that would have been better understood written that way here.

It's a tad insensitive, and I just plain disagree.

I know you're "not supposed" to comment on downvotes but I found your comment useful -- the comment was fine, and still grey, so I upvoted it.

It is true that some earnest comments can innocently be read as sarcastic.