I treasure this site and the insightful comments I read. It’s one of the last places I’ve found on the internet where someone can bring up a controversial topic and get legitimate responses.
To contrast, the FT used to have good comments (and still does on really obscure topics) but overall they've gone massively downhill because of the lack of decent norms around thoughtful conversation.
Good! USA politics are so ridiculous and toxic, it's better to have a place that's free of all that garbage. However, I don't agree that these discussions get "shut down": I see Americans posting their libertarian, gun-fetish stuff here all the time.
The same crowd has now migrated to ActivityPub. You can find them there still acting the same way today.