I'd appreciate it if people wouldn't rush to the conclusion that we do these things for partisan reasons. It takes self-discipline to suspend your political reflexes and consider other explanations, but that's a necessary habit to get into if we're to have thoughtful discourse here.
In the above case, there was no ideal place to prune the off-topic subthread. 12945175 started the political digression for sure, but seemed clearly to be an offhand misstep in an otherwise good-faith conversation. That's not really a problem on HN. The problem is when other users (you, in this case) pounce and turn the politics knobs to 11. Then we get a flamewar. Had it been possible to snip the thread at the original off-topic aside, we'd have done that, but obviously we can't edit users' comments that way.
While I have you, I need to ask you to change how you use HN. You've been violating the site's guidelines by using it primarily to conduct political battles. That's an abuse, and we ban accounts that do it. HN exists to gratify intellectual curiosity. Using it to bash political foes damages that.
This isn't because we favor one political position over another. We're gardeners. When gangs show up to rumble and trample the garden, it doesn't matter what colors they're wearing.
>You've been violating the site's guidelines by using it primarily to conduct political battles
What? I read what I find interesting, and respond if I have something to say. Your assessment of my use of the site makes it very clear that you are not succeeding in "suspend(ing) your political reflexes and consider(ing) other explanations".
