I agree with you, in principle. I would like to see less politics on HN as well. But I will admit to allowing myself to get sucked into a few of these debates... and this NSA one is a bit different in my mind. I mean, yeah, you're right that it doesn't necessarily need dozens of threads, but there are important aspects that link this to HN and our crowd. Especially the technological aspects of how to protect our data, and our users' data from PRISM and its ilk, and the sociological aspects of how to educate people on the importance of encryption and the like.