Except i don't think it is a moot point, because my thesis is that the HN community perceives certain things as "political" and other things as "not political"

Except i don't think it is a moot point, because my thesis is that the HN community perceives certain things as "political" and other things as "not political" and that it creates a bias. Obviously individual users are going to have different opinions in some cases; HN isn't a hive-mind. But that doesn't mean one can't predict trends in what's going to be flagged as "politics" and what isn't, regardless of the actual political content.