I'm new to Less Wrong and I have a question about the rules. I posted a link to the latest post on my blog, in which I argue in a polemical way against the claim that Trump's election caused a wave of hate crimes in the US. Someone complained about the tone of my post, which is fair enough (although I tend not to take very seriously criticism about tone that aren't accompanied by any substantive criticism), but I noticed that my link was taken down.
The same person also said that he or she thought LW tried to avoid politics, so I'm wondering if that's why the link was taken down. I don't really mind that my link was taken down, although I think part of the criticism was unfair (the person in question complained that I hadn't provided any evidence that people had made the claim I was attacking, which is true although it's only because I don't see how anyone could seriously deny it unless they have been living on another planet these past few months, but in any case I edited the post to address the criticism), but I would like to know what I'm permitted to post for future reference.
Like I said, I'm new here, so I apologize if I violated the rules and I'm not asking you to change them for me (obviously), but I would like to know what they are. (I didn't find anything that says we can't share links about politics, though it's true that when I browse past discussions, which I should probably have done in the first place, there doesn't seem to be any.) Is it forbidden to post anything that is related to politics, even if it makes a serious effort at evidence-based analysis, as I think it's fair to say my post does? I plan to post plenty of things on my blog that have nothing to do with politics, such as the post I just shared about moral relativism, but I just want to make sure I don't run afoul of the rules again.
I think people in real life are actually doing this kind of thing, but they don't drive in real traffic; instead they go to an empty place, and try e.g. driving between huge empty paper boxes (so that in case of crash nothing serious happens). And I think they don't do it really to learn driving well while drunk, but rather to calibrate themselves about how exactly different levels of being drunk impact their performance.
So, what would be the analogy of the empty paper boxes for LW?
LW is the empty place with the empty boxes are the threads with politics in them.
Though driving isn't the best metaphor. LW is the moot court. Or boxing ring. Or dance floor. Takes two to tango.
We could segregate these things for those who don't feel their up to having a political discussion. Tag a thread with Politics. Don't want to talk politics, don't go into the thread.