I honestly believe that although there are clear troll posts, drive by posts that are designed to rankle and upset, the replies are usually sincere. Good faith responses from people genuinely interested in the extreme opposite positions, beliefs and opinions that are so clearly held by many others.
The trouble is, especially here, anyone who does have a different opinion is usually jumped on en masse, or as proven time and time again, has absolutely no answers. Well, certainly not satisfactory ones at any rate. It's often the case that any replies are honest yet searching questions or facts that cannot or will not be responded to honestly as they expose more serious questions to be asked or positions to be defended, and they often cannot be.
Because this forum is quite close overall, and as pointed out frequently, it's liberal/left leaning and other than that, the vast majority share the wish for equality, fairness and honesty. Holding an opinion is fine if it can be backed up or at least explained. Sadly, it's incredibly difficult to defend many opinions or beliiefs, especially controversial or extreme ones so they either don't reply or just don't post at all.
The opposite of here would be the shit show you have on places like Twitter where people just don't give a flying shit anymore and wear their hatred, ignorance, selfishness and greed like a badge of honour. However doing so here would likely get you banned. First and foremost this is a football forum and I'm sure many want to keep their opinions to themselves so they can post elsewhere like the transfer forum or football forums.
It's rare to find posters like
@Amir who will argue or reply sincerely and eloquently and ignore the pile on, yet still manage to offer valuable insights from different perspectives and experiences and beliefs. I honestly can't remember the last time it happened in a US politics thread. I think it was when a poster pretended to be far right and just posted replies to keep a conversation going.
Although
@Carolina Red gave as good as he got when defending guns, as does
@Dr. Dwayne, and in truth I understand and respect their views and it absolutely gave me lots of thought in how things aren't always so black and white. Funnily enough that discussion often makes me question how I look at other things too.
People become too entrenched and stubborn, refusing to see another side and refusing to admit they were wrong, or concede points, let alone actually find common ground or change their opinions. That's the one downside of here at times as often all or the vast majority being in agreement on subjects is all well and good, but it's not reflective of the real world.