I know where you're coming from and I agree with the sentiment, but despite "gender, race, class, or any of those other things" being "irrelevant to technology"

I know where you're coming from and I agree with the sentiment, but despite "gender, race, class, or any of those other things" being "irrelevant to technology", we live in a world that is much more than programming languages and processors. We are not soulless machines. We should put a stop to talking about topics relevant to our society and culture just because they create dialog? Many discussions beyond gender politics and tech have a tendency to get blown out of proportion and off point. Should we ban discussion on that too? I think HN is one of the most appropriate places to discuss these and other kinds of issues (theoretically at least).