I agree that the net effect of general political discussion on HN is negative. Jacques M did not post his article to HN though - that was someone else. He put

I agree that the net effect of general political discussion on HN is negative. Jacques M did not post his article to HN though - that was someone else. He put it it on his own blog, where surely he's entitled to talk about politics if he wants to. Furthermore, in the article there's no mention of Trump anywhere. He's taking about the intersection of politics and technology, and surely there needs to be a metaspace to talk about that somewhere, even if that space is not on HN? (For example, SO has a meta.) Otherwise, if we Hackers cede that metaspace entirely then the lawyer types who run the world from Davos will just decide for us. [1] [1] I don't agree with everything he says, but IIRC I first read that sentiment expressed by Eben Moglen, though I don't