Four relevant bullet points from the Hacker News Guidelines:
* When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.
* Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
* Please don't post shallow dismissals
* Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.
And yet not once does it mention "don't start commenting on divisive topics"
Those guidelines were written before bots could pass the Turing test and before nation states set up active disinformation groups that don’t even set out to push a narrative, but to just push every side of divisive topics just to spread division.
You can follow them if you want, but I find it hopelessly naive to trust brand new accounts whose first topics they comment on are touchy ones.
You can comment about anything here and build credibility.
Just don’t start on the most divisive topics.