[1attice]

That is how the guidelines read. If practice varies from theory, one must ask who, and what, is being practiced.

[metalcrow]

Well not exactly. The guidelines are contradictory. They say that "Anything that good hackers would find interesting" is on topic, but "Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports" are off topic. How do you resolve the difference? It's just a cultural decision as to what is allowed and what isn't.

[roryirvine]

Discussions about visas and immigration have been a core HN feature for the past decade: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts

[1attice]

"Just" is doing a lot of work in that problem restatement. It's not a word typically found in front of the phrase "cultural decision", although I commend the baldness of your ideological commitments.