I have been on plenty of communities who have attempted to ban contentious discussions. Know what happens? Proxy discussions. Discussion that go to less-moderated places like Discord where real-time communication makes moderation *exceptionally* difficult. Bleed-through, with allusions instead of direct points. And - inevitably - more bans when people do bring up something political or contentious, because that's the only real way to enforce something like that long-term.
Containment is a better approach than trying to stamp it out. Containing it to registered users who have to actively log in to see it works even better (as we have done).
That said, there are a couple things I'd like to see happen.
1. A name change. Political Discussions doesn't really cover what should be encapsulated there, and frankly anything contentious should land there, not just politics (there was some debate about the infamous end-of-the-world thread being relocated there, as an example). Aligning with the space combat theme of the forums, my first thought is "Disputed Territory" with a subtext "A place for discussion of current events, politics, and other matters likely to cause dinner-table arguments."
2. A rules re-write for the entire board, and a specific and explicit set of rules for that board. Board-wide rules to focus on polite exchange of ideas around modding and gaming; rules for that board to specify 'rules of engagement' if you want to participate in more contentious discussions, with specific explanations of how subjective personal attacks [which is the root cause of the latest drama] will be determined and resolved. Furthermore, a requirement that "Disputed Territory" allegations and statements of fact be accompanied with some kind of sourcing for those facts (this alone will help minimize bull****).
3. A general policy that *all* matters of contention be placed in that sub-board. While the coronavirus thread has largely been kept tame-ish after early intervention, I agreed only with returning it to GenDisc because it had died down a bit. In the future, I'd like to see ALL discussions of current events where there is any contention relocated to a board where it is clear there are different rules of engagement.
To sum up: the problem with taking current events and politics to Discord is it makes discord more likely to become a cesspool and it's FAR harder to moderate and maintain without a literal army of moderators. I don't wish that on the people running Discord. PolDisc has largely been an effective containment of nonsense since its inception, and it was a fairly extraordinary collision of circumstances (and some longstanding personal conflicts) that brought us to this latest. I think there's a very good argument for attempting real reform before killing it entirely, because personally I have ZERO desire to trying to police the passive-aggressive slippery slope that GenDisc will become if we do kill it.