On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find
interesting ... anything that gratifies
one's intellectual curiosity.
Consider some of the other stuff an opportunity to learn both about stuff outside your current direct interests and experience, and about your fellow readers/contributors at HN. I've encountered stuff I wouldn't normally find, and some of it has been interesting.
Take the opportunity.
Stem cell research in the US for example is a clear example of politics affecting science, for that matter most drugs policies in the world are an example where politics ignores the science.
So I want to know about politics to see how it will interact with science and technology.
It would be nice to live in a little cocoon where we only saw things that we liked and all that messy RL stuff would just go away. But it wont go away, so I want to know about it.
If something sounds interesting to you, great. If it doesn't, it doesn't mean that one article is a flaming pile of shit, it just means it's not your cup of tea.
Vote up what you like, and show the community what you want to see more of. Seems pretty simple to me!