As in, if I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem? ;-) I can understand that this is an important issue. I can understand the desire to discuss i

As in, if I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem? ;-) I can understand that this is an important issue. I can understand the desire to discuss it and to do so in front of specific segments of the population for which the issue is important (in this case technology workers). I would argue, though, that this particular issue clearly is orthogonal to technical issues in that it is something that is important and relevant to all humans in all walks of life. That's what orthogonality is. I think that's precisely why people want to discuss these kinds of things in terms of technology/hacker culture. However, as important as this issue is, there are other issues that are just as important to every human in the world. And just like this issue, they are orthogonal to technology. They are just as important to discuss in front of an audience like HN as they are anywhere else. As such, there are people who are very determined to get access to this audience. It is easy to reason that these are important issues that nobody should ignore. It is easy to reason that we should make sure to provide a stage and put it front and centre. But my life is full of people screaming to get my attention to important issues. I spend quite a lot of my time and energy dealing with them. Sometimes I don't want to do that. Sometimes I want to find out about trivial things like what new crazy javascript framework I'm going to be cursing about tomorrow. Or why I should pay attention to some unicorn startup (who will almost certainly be gone in a few years despite all the hype). Sometimes I don't want important. That's why I come here. I assume there are others who feel the same way, but I could easily be wrong.