This is not an HN specific problem, it's endemic to all political discussion today.
Everything has become so polarized it's almost impossible to have a discussion that crosses any sort of substantive divide.
Even the slightest hint of apostasy indicates the speaker to be an obviously evil individual who completely and utterly opposes every rational or moral concept and indeed fact that all our right-thinking intellectual cohorts believe.
Want to do something about giant banks fucking up our country? Sorry, you're a socialist loser who still lives in your mother's basement, your point is invalid, discussion over.
Concerned that the process of science is becoming corrupted in climatology due to group-think? Sorry, you're a global warming denialist (which is as bad as if not probably worse than a holocaust denier, sorry to say), your point is invalid, discussion over.
I get your point and I'm all for calm, dispassionate, intellectual discussions about theoretical things that don't exist yet.
But when there are real things being done right now by your government in your name causing innocent people to suffer, I cannot fathom a middle-ground on that.
First, stop the process and THEN we can have a calm, intellectual discussion about if it's right or wrong. But not while someone is aggressively doing something against another without public approval.
It's easy to call for dispassion when one isn't directly affected by an issue, how would you react if was your neighbor, family or yourself?
