How is politics defined with LW?
It isn't. But by any definition respecting ordinary language, creating a fooming AI is a very political act. Yet the subject has been discussed many times on LW without anyone's mind being killed. (Some minor injuries, perhaps ;) ) Thank goodness the LW community doesn't take its own rules too seriously.
There is no need to start a thread on the public and private sectors' roles in health care. But if the subject comes up naturally in a discussion on, say, seeking psychological expert help in overcoming some form of irrationality - then let it. Let it be touched on (not displace the original topic) as far as is relevant. Putting up crude firewalls is not worth the price in artificially constrained discussion. The "slippery slope" isn't - as demonstrated in the response to Mass_Driver's recent thread.
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.