They're not off topic if they are 'evidence of some interesting new phenomenon'. As a long-time HN user you are surely as aware of that caveat as I am.

Politics has always made up a large part of HN discourse. You can verify this by hitting the firebase API, or just use the search field at the bottom of the page and look into some past discussions around terms like 'Iraq' or 'guantanamo'.

In fairness, I don’t think paragraph 2 excludes discourse on the topics I mentioned. It certainly hasn’t in the past.

I keep reading about tech news on websites where I’d have expected so see it here first: that was a reason to ask.

Tech and Tech bros' politics are dominating the headlines. It's highly relevant since whatever happens will dictate a big part of tech's future. Deciding what programming language to use can't be the only HN subject at this point.