There are plenty of interesting conversations on the Internet, but relatively few happen in large communities, because those prevent many deep conversations fro

There are plenty of interesting conversations on the Internet, but relatively few happen in large communities, because those prevent many deep conversations from happening just by their nature. ...that wasn't a answer. Here's an answer. Although their flaws are numerous and well-documented, including their often distasteful beliefs, and although their communities have tons of structural ideological bias, you should check out the "rationalist" community. They can be found on various forums. The discussions on touchy issues have largely moved to forums that are smaller but still public, which can be found with a bit of effort. One issue with them, and at least one other community I know of with a lot of the "learn it yourself" mentality, is their relationship with subject-matter expertise and authority. It's bloody exhausting to defend oneself against a bunch of ignoramuses in a debate in a tree-style forum, so there's a lot of weird crap ideas floating around. But, at least it's vaguely what you're looking for.