I wish @dang would weigh in. Either unflag it (as I hope) on the grounds of it being a key event of high interest to curious people or confirm that this doesn't belong on HN (which would be a valid point, too).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36456034 (EDIT: side note, it seems there is a surprising number of people for whom it seems incredibly important that this is on the front page, but that don't take part in the discussion about it. why? Something not being on the front page doesn't mean you can't discuss it!)
For every thread that I comment on there are usually several that I read because I find others' comments informative or thought-provoking. Reading comments is basically why I am on HN. There may be the same dynamic in play here.
On the topic itself -- this war, and the world reaction to it, is a critical part of modern history and will likely influence political, military and technological developments for years to come. I would love to hear more smart people express an opinion on it. Flagging greatly limits this.
fair point, HN could maybe do a better job making the "canonical" thread more discoverable for those that look for it (now that I think of it, flagged might remove it from search too even if not flag-killed, that's not ideal and would be an argument for removing that mark for the first thread, even if stays penalized in ranking)
