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I wish the world were such that it wasn't as important to talk about "politics", but it keeps intruding into HN-relevant areas: defending science, promoting quack science, arresting students, etc.

HN is still the best community I've found for discussion. I regularly encounter comments that expand my understanding and change my mind.

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I'm with you on forum quality. But in a broader, societal context, smart people being apolitical is one of the ways in which unintelligent people come to dominate politics. Democratic political discourse is slow, inefficient and frustrating. But that is part of the process. The alternative is to such conflict is to let one person or a political homogenous group make the decisions.

I agree, HN is not the forum for political discourse.

I would much prefer if there was a forum for smart people to be pan-political, that is apply their critical thinking skills and demand detailed information from all perspectives. Seems to me that all we have is several echo-chambers where only non-dissenting views and voices are permitted.

Me too (yarg!)

I submit that the Socratic approach is the preferred tool.

Almost always. Most adults with whom I try to apply it tend to get defensive and "offended" pretty quickly though. People don't like to have their world views challenged methodically.

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