The irony of Hacker News commenters saying they avoid the news on a site called Hacker News...
Honestly I click maybe less than 10% of all articles I see on this site. Usually I like to read the ones that are about interesting new studies or computation breakthroughs, and I do like to chime in on some controversial topics from time to time when they pop up and I think my input could be beneficial to someone reading it.
Jokes aside, I think it is partially disingenuous for others to claim they avoid news on this site. It might not be the front page of a major news site, but there's plenty of politics and doom here too. Perhaps it feels less like news to others since it better fits the beliefs/expectations of the in-group.