HN culture is progressive on some things but very libertarian on others. It's not very left wing because a large portion of the posters here are quite insulated from the plight of blue collar workers.
blue collar workers have always been populist, and isolated from leftists. Read up on Marxist ideas about the necessity of a revolutionary "vanguard", by which they don't mean workers, they mean activists, agitators, professional revolutionaries, who work to create the conditions for revolution. Blue collar workers are too busy working and supporting their families.
