This is the problem with political discussions on HN: we've all read the guideline that says "don't post political appeals to HN", and so we waste time rationalizing that our preferred political appeals are something other than politics --- often with some superficial veneer of engineering-speak. I've been here for a pretty long time, long enough to have seen the same tropes used to get Ron Paul's RE[LOVE]OLUTION on the front page. I'm not impressed.

What makes this one worse is that it has Paul Graham's name on it. Naturally, half the site thinks that means it's pre-approved for HN. But no: just because he wrote it doesn't mean he thinks it merits a shitshow political thread on HN about it.