I think this is something you get almost for free when talking to someone you know in a real-world face-to-face conversation. You get full-bandwidth communicati

I think this is something you get almost for free when talking to someone you know in a real-world face-to-face conversation. You get full-bandwidth communication with a real human, and it's impossible to ignore their humanity. When you step back from having a conversation with a person you know, to having an argument with a person you don't know, the humanity diminishes - they become just a character on the other side of the room. When you step back from reality altogether, and argue with people online, the humanity is absent entirely (and indeed, the thing you are interacting with might not be human). I conclude that a healthy debate can only take place in the real world and a prerequisite is getting to know the person first.