Maybe people presume that corrections represent a political or ideological attack. After all, I've seen people assume that sometimes on HN, which tries not to b

Maybe people presume that corrections represent a political or ideological attack. After all, I've seen people assume that sometimes on HN, which tries not to be a space for political flamewars and dunking. If you think that someone trying to correct you is likely to be a political opponent trying to score points, it makes sense that you would be vigilant and defensive. https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/arguments-as-soldiers https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/arguments-as-soldiers talks about one aspect of this where people might feel like they have to defend anything that "their side" says and dispute anything that the "other side" says. Sometimes people online actively try to defuse this by adding some context expressing sympathy or a non-judgmental or non-confrontational attitude. (That is, assuming that they merely want to counter mistaken ideas and information, and not people who hold or spread them!) I wonder to what extent that works.