[alexmingoia]

The why isn’t important. HN would be better without current events. Banning current events would solve the political threads. Without current events the site would be a respite from rather than extension of whatever the current rage is (which is mostly politics).

Current events also encourage repetitive topics. Every day is multiple coronavirus threads. During an election it’s daily election news. During the 737max thing it’s multiple daily threads on the same thing.

Every current events topic just turns into a flame war. Coronavirus is a good example. Every thread is an argument about whether lockdown is good or not, how deadly the virus is, etc.

Ban current events. They dominate every other medium. HN doesn’t need them.