The level of discourse [on Hacker News] might not be quite up to LW, but the subject matter is a lot more inclusive.

I find it strange that you would say that. (And I've read a lot of Hacker News.)

Given an arbitrary aspect of reality (e.g., an aspect of human life or of the world around us) I think you are just as likely to be able to start a discussion of it here as on Hacker News if you can meet LW's higher standard for rationality.

In other words, I think Hacker News is simply more tolerant of worthless ways of discussing topics, not tolerant of more topics.

(Of course, Hacker News is more worthwhile than most places on the web.)