I think one of the things that hasn't aged well is this: > There are certainly some political questions that have definite answers, like how much a new governm

I think one of the things that hasn't aged well is this: > There are certainly some political questions that have definite answers, like how much a new government policy will cost. Well sure, how much a new government policy will cost does have an answer. It's not knowable before you implemenent the policy. I bet you there's someone in this thread that will argue, with facts, that a $15 minimum wage will boost the economy and increase tax revenue. I bet there's someone who can argue the reverse. I bet both sides will be able to cite both partisan and "non-partisan" organisations to back up their argument. I'm not sure what PG was saying there was true in 2009 (post Obamacare) but certainly it doesn't hold up now. I also don't think that intransigent discussion on the issue would be the result of threatening identities, but instead based on people's values and assumptions about human nature which largely cannot be definitively proven right or wing. This translates into code too - there are people I'm not going to argue with about their code, because I value simplicity and velocity in development whilst they're far more interested in optimizing every single line to the nth degree. I think what they're doing is bad engineering, but I'm not going to change their value system.