The discussions these kind of submissions generate tend to get overly political. It's also hard to justify that every internet controversy is suitable content f

The discussions these kind of submissions generate tend to get overly political. It's also hard to justify that every internet controversy is suitable content for HN - I think it's more likely that dang et al. allow the submission slide for a while out of "public interest" and to centralise comments on a single submission (before then dropping it off the front page).