I agree to an extent, but we're also at a point where politics have spilled over into areas where they were a little less common previously. 20+ years ago it wa

I agree to an extent, but we're also at a point where politics have spilled over into areas where they were a little less common previously. 20+ years ago it was political when Microsoft was in its antitrust fight. Right now, just one example-- social media account bans-- is not only very political, it is extremely partisan and polarizing as well. It is practically impossible to talk about the issue without touching on some aspect of political/social values. So, it makes sense that politics come up more often because they now intersect more often with technology (or at least much more visibly) than they have previously. Unfortunately a lot of people don't engage constructively in conversations like that, ones where two different viewpoints may come down to core values that are taken as axiomatic. I think HN does a lot better than other venues when discussing these things but I also see a heck of a lot more comments flagged dead with awful, insulting and vile language that are every bit as bad as the worst you'd find anywhere on Reddit.