I'd say it's "historic" but it's not important. It will roil markets less than a shutdown would, and that story would not be particularly HN-worthy either.

Sometimes I wish there was a way to designate some posts "off topic" but still be visible on the front page -- like a topical Jubilee Day. I'm genuinely interested in what some of the HN crowd think about (some of) the non-tech, non-intellectually-curious stuff that goes on in the world.

But I suspect that we'd all just turn out to be dopey ignoramuses, opining well beyond our knowledge, and the discussion would devolve into the same canned narrative crap that we see everywhere else.

HN probably has nothing to contribute to the discussion, and policing that line through downvotes and flagging is almost certainly the prophylaxis that keeps the infection at bay. Alas.