I saw this article by Nathan J. Robinson on Current Affairs and wanted to share. I do agree with the idea that the twitter format discourages deep conversation and debate. Lemmy is in general much better in this regard, but even still it is affected by the wider internet culture of our time, and a proper debate culture takes effort.
Even on Lemmy I frequently see more nuanced takes being shut down by quick, snarky comments pushing the conversation into absolutes. And yes, a democratic society absolutely requires healthy discussion of difficult issues, not just outrage.
Really hate this, the article focused on other platforms but I want to call out the stuff Reddit and many of its moderators did to actively prevent debate from happening, like generally regarding disagreement as something to be moderated away, the way the updated block feature works, and locking any thread with a contentious topic that people wanted to argue about.