That reminds me of a quote by Freeman Dyson on Stephen Wolfram's work.
> "There's a tradition of scientists approaching senility to come up with grand, improbable theories. Wolfram is unusual in that he's doing this in his forties."
I always felt it was an unfair dismissal of someone's life's work. Maybe it was true but it didn't enrich the discussion or our understanding. I suppose it means even a respected thinker can be guilty of shallow dismissals and saying hurtful things in public about others.
It's similar to a "thought-terminating cliché", in that it just reinforces an existing opinion without adding anything, making us think deeper, or furthering the conversation.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html