[nelsonmandela]

Why wouldn't you just hide it or ignore it?

[jakelazaroff]

Because I think having the same (mostly tribal) political discussion ad nauseum harms the community.

[ddalex]

If people had cancelled Greenwald this way years ago perhaps nobody would have learned of Snowden's disclosures.

Who knows what we will never learn because people want to avoid certain type of discussions

[0-_-0]

More optimistically, it allows the community to blow off steam in threads you don't read

[dang]

Steam is not a good analogy. A better analogy is fire. Steam blows off, fire spreads.