It follows that either you're being irrational, or your level of interest in politics is perhaps very low, but still above zero.
I'd ask for specific examples of the kinds of situations you are talking about (and correspondingly the intended meaning of "interest in politics" appropriate for those situations). But it's not helpful to draw a distinction between "very low level of interest, above zero" and "completely no interest" for discussing the intended meaning in the post (i.e. deciding whether to have discussions about politics of LW). So sure, I didn't make this distinction. I don't see why you would see this distinction as relevant.
What I'm driving at is that the minimal level of interest in politics that it can be rational to have nevertheless invites non-trivial questions. Specifically, if the only belief about politics that you ever bother forming is that no further interest in politics is desirable or necessary, this belief still requires non-trivial justification, and it's irrational to ignore this question. (Which would be implied by the statement that one ignores politics completely.)
The concrete examples of situations where lack of knowledge of politics is costly (i.e. more c...
There is a tendency to downvote articles and commentaries with a political subtext with a remark on how politics is the mind-killer. I completely understand that nobody wants his mind to be killed, however, I disagree on the employed methods. I don't think anybody can really afford to ignore politics. It's a fact about any group of even a handful of people. Thus instead of shunning politics I think it's better to build one's rational defenses. Understanding that politics is a problem is only the first step. If you stop there, there will always be a big part of life where you are not rational. Therefore I suggest that, as long as it doesn't get out of hands, there should always be room for political discussions if not on the main site at least in the discussion section.