Go one level up and you're talking about HN as it is echewing anything "political" for the same reason (politics is mainstream and doesn't satisfy intellectual curiosity.) But it isn't any more grounded in "reality" to discuss the taxonomy of programming languages than birds or Sumerian kings. All of it is an escape from reality. None of it is discussing children getting blown up in Gaza, or famine in Sudan, or what have you.
There is a difference between "trying to discourage what stimulates gut-talk in a part of the population" and refusing it as a legitimate topic. Already if we can reason about it it is intellectually interesting; if it has non evident roots and outcomes it is intellectually interesting.
And there are reasons why what will concern us directly is important to be notified and discussed to be clarified.
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Go one level up and you're talking about HN as it is echewing anything "political" for the same reason (politics is mainstream and doesn't satisfy intellectual curiosity.) But it isn't any more grounded in "reality" to discuss the taxonomy of programming languages than birds or Sumerian kings. All of it is an escape from reality. None of it is discussing children getting blown up in Gaza, or famine in Sudan, or what have you.
There is a difference between "trying to discourage what stimulates gut-talk in a part of the population" and refusing it as a legitimate topic. Already if we can reason about it it is intellectually interesting; if it has non evident roots and outcomes it is intellectually interesting.
And there are reasons why what will concern us directly is important to be notified and discussed to be clarified.