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Why was this even posted here on HN? I don't think it's okay that HN should become a microcosm of the political economy of the United States. Well, for whatever it's worth, I hope California gets serious about secession.

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> Why was this even posted here on HN?

That's why YC added the Hide button. With one click, you can simply hide posts that don't interest you.

I flagged the post. Hiding the post is good for the user, but not good for the community. Political posts on HN are fine, but should be relatively limited--otherwise they would begin to dominate and ruin HN--and avoid alarmism (which this article did not). In most cases, when politics is encouraged as a topic, it becomes an echo-chamber as the winning partisans downvote the minority until the minority is completely gone (see /r/politics).

I've seen so many intellectual forums overrun and finally ruined by political posts (and they usually start with harmless posts) that do nothing but engender the highest levels of divisiveness among members. Would be sad to see HN fall into such a situation.

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