Wikimedia maintains a world news section [0] that is well linked to the context. Hacker News is not optimized to provide the prerequisite context for a topic like this. Topics like these attract bikeshedding value statements rather than extended breakdowns of topics and links to primary sources.
There are usually a few threads discussing major or controversial political news. Dang is good about collapsing them and keeping things isolated there. It is pretty easy to avoid these threads and they fall off the front page quickly. I don’t think they add much to HN, but I like to skim them as this community’s take is the least biased.
There was a busy front page thread for each of Obama's election wins, Trump's First, and Biden's win. There were numerous busy threads on the Obama campaign's use of technology leading up to his first election. I'd say it's working out okay ~15 years into the experiment of unkilling certain historically significant political threads.
