> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
I agree that it's intellectually gratifying, but Hacker News is supposed to be more of a tech interest board more than an "internet funnel" like Reddit or Twitter.
I think tech news should not feel like it's somehow above normal human experiences, and there's benefit in observing mainstream news together. For example, the slashdot thread on 9/11 was well known.
There was a lot of discussion here when the war between Russia and Ukraine began, so why not also discussion about an event (Russian military coup) that may well end the war?
Habr - roughly the most prominent russian-speaking counterpart of HN - had a longstanding "no politics" policy too, which in hindsight only benefited the authoritarian regime by keeping more people "apolitical". When they came for the IT crowd, political threads became the hottest discussed topic there. Personally, that's the only reason for me to visit Habr anymore, to observe the effects the war and the mood among my colleagues and fellow citizens. Political threads on HN serve the same purpose. I believe banning politics outright from media is shortsighted, major events will - and already did - affect the industry, same as, for example, the climate change. Instead of banning, I believe steering the discussion towards these potential effects would prove more beneficial. Besides, not every HN visitor lives in US, the situation can serve as a viable lesson for those promoting absence from local politics: don't repeat the mistake citizens of RF did.
