I don’t understand the insistence that this isn’t on topic. Hard not to paint it as anything but willfully ignorant.
Awareness of your country's politics definitely isn't the issue here. I am keenly aware of the US presidents' threats to invade my country.
The issue is the insistence that it has to be discussed in every community, all the time, and that the importance transcends categorisation. Every website just becomes another dumping ground for US politics, and when you bring that up, Americans get indignant.
It's Hacker News. I am here for news for hackers. The guidelines are pretty explicit: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic".
IMO it sounds like you’d be better off reading Linux mailing lists and open source READMEs if you want to avoid politics. Just so happens that right now politics is uncomfortable, but it wasn’t 10 years ago when the interest rate was effectively 0% and the US gov and SV had still some semblance of separation.
You had to go out of your way to find this thread and make multiple comments complaining about it.
Just ignore the thread, or hide it and move on.
So the visibility of these stories isn't the issue, and the quality of discussion isn't the issue, since neither matter.
I wonder what is it that people actually object to?
“MOST stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.”
Emphasis mine
I'll make sire not to male the park dirty and maybe pick up a litter or two. But I'm not a ranger.