+1, most of the people I know haven't really thought through their political views so when it comes up in person, I very often end up saying something that woul

+1, most of the people I know haven't really thought through their political views so when it comes up in person, I very often end up saying something that would be shocking to them if I wasn't there to make the case for it (and in 99% of cases, they end up convinced or at least convinced that my position is valid). Online is an entirely different story. The barriers to communicating efficiently makes people default to pattern-matching instead of thought, which pretty quickly devolves into the lowest common denominator of conversation. As you say, places like reddit are better for this, where people have a higher tolerance for longer conversation and the interface supports longer posts. I'm part of a subreddit that's probably in my top 3 fora ever for quality of conversation ever, but it relies heavily on the fact that the norms are pretty well-internalized by everyone.