Of course, I don't know about the interminable discussions which have occurred here in the past or why they might not have been productive.

For most part the policy was preemptive. We've known politics is the mind killer from before LW was created and didn't want to go there. What forays into politically charged areas have occurred here haven't done too much to dissuade me of that notion even though the conversations have been 'less wrong' than they perhaps may have been elsewhere.