Furthermore, the guidelines explicitly note that these types of articles are off-topic - politics, generally.
I have avoided commenting on this since, as you wrote, it's not kosher, but I have noticed an increase in political articles (unrelated to tech) that make it to the front page. It is worrying to me.
The selection tends to be far more of the classic high-quality HN style and less Reddit-y.
The politically obsessed people already ruined Twitter, which for some reason doesn't let you opt-out of seeing some random hyper-politicized tweet that a person you followed 6yrs ago liked (not even retweeted). It's natural that their "my pet political issues are more important than everything you care about" mentality is expanding onto other platforms when it's been so encouraged elsewhere.
I have avoided commenting on this since, as you wrote, it's not kosher, but I have noticed an increase in political articles (unrelated to tech) that make it to the front page. It is worrying to me.