&gt; The debate about Linux desktop or bitcoin need not be political.<p>I agree, but that doesn&#x27;t mean we should silence people who bring up political issues.<p>&gt; But I&#x27;d like to offer an indicator for when things inevitably become &#x27;political&#x27;; when there&#x27;s no provably correct answer and the use of force is involved.<p>That&#x27;s a good indicator that pretty much everyone would agree.<p>However, what constitutes &quot;use of force&quot;, however, changes from people to people. Some people believe that merely having a state is &quot;use of force&quot;. Other people believe that having a billion dollars to bargain is &quot;use of force&quot;. It gets crazier: other people believe it&#x27;s neither. Or both. Etcetera.