Moving the discourse further away from the light won't help cure the divide in this country. We need more discussion, not less. We need to get both sides talking to each other not to themselves about each other.
Do we? Most discussions in comment sections between people of different persuasions tend to be toxic and abusive these days. when moderators attempt to impose standards of civility there's a chorus of complaints about 'censorship'. There have to be limits to patience with bad-faith dialog, otherwise you're just enabling trolls and abusive people.
You and I probably have different political views and yet we are able to remain civil.
Everyone in my neighborhood, every single neighbor, speaks different languages, has different cultural origins and most are of different races. We don't support the same candidates or policy positions but we do all support and look out for each other.
I guess my point is, politeness even when there are significant disagreements is possible. We need to analyze the communications that do and don't work, find the similarities and patterns and encourage the beneficial ones while discouraging the negative ones.
Is there any reasoning for thinking this? Besides that, discussion cannot fix harms created by previous discussion - it can only (maybe) prevent future harms.
> We need more discussion, not less. We need to get both sides talking to each other
Parler heavily moderates away any non-right-wing content. There was never "both sides" on Parler. If it's actively being used to plan and execute acts of violence (arguably terrorism, given the death, bombs, and more that we've seen this week), how does keeping Parler around bring anyone together?
you're making the incorrect assumption that both sides of the discourse have valid positions.
1. what is a non-racist person supposed to say to a racist person to change their views?
2. why is it the non-racist person's responsibility to talk to the racist person? in the words of office space, "why should I change? he's the one who sucks."
The 1960s and 1970s saw a reckoning in the USA that while not complete, did result in a number of people with substantially incorrect views eventually coming about to a more sensible position.
Similar victories have been achieved with respect to drug legalization and "gay marriage".
None of these victories are or ever will be complete but a combination of discussion and social pressure did make significant social progress possible.
"Once we kill all the terrorists, there won't be any more terrorists"
Please put a little more fucking thought into this than "why don't we just get rid of them, then they'll go away".
Completely aside from the morality of it, giving into that urge is exactly how we got here, and exactly how this spirals much, MUCH further out of control.
