The next question would be: why the hell would you discuss these subjects on a forum devoted to keeping alive a 20 years old game? Why would you ignite flames on such a website? See, everything leads back to the core of the issue we're debating. 
Because when e.g. a pandemic breaks out and changes everyone's lives in a way unprecedented almost to the limit of living memory, people generally want to talk about it with those around them. Preferably without a minority of as few as one member loudly arguing with them that it's not actually real and everyone should be going to church as normal. People feel a basic need to talk to each other about the things that are important to them.
To add to that, this is not just something that people want to do, sharing this kind of thing can help build community if handled well. Getting to know each other builds bonds. True, sometimes getting to know someone makes you realize they're someone you can't like, but in most cases there's a lot of ground between 'I don't like this person' and 'I can't coexist with this person on a modding forum'. And there are times when someone's interest in Freespace is at an ebb, and talking about light, harmless matters isn't enough to bring them around, but keeping up with the real matters of other people or sharing their own is.
But so many real things do overlap with politics. If a woman wants to share anger or seek advice about restrictions in women's rights in the world, or practically any other woman-specific issue, that may be an immediate life matter for them but a highly politically charged one. Just because chunks of their life experience have been politicized should they be denied the chance to talk about those things? The same goes for any other host of things, what is politics for you is life for others.
This is a somewhat unrefined thought, but to an extent I think people need to draw a distinction between political discussion and partisan discussion. Nearly any aspect of life can be political, because politics encompass how society makes collective decisions about those aspects of life. But when people start shouting at the other side of the discussion about which party or ideological camp they're on, then it's a lot harder to keep the conversation in a useful mode. I don't necessarily think discussion of governments and the political groups steering them should be banned either, as again that can be a real big deal for people's lives, but maybe an effort could be made to keep the streams more separate? I don't know what to do with this, honestly, I've just been thinking about it a lot lately and wanted to put it out there.
