> That, really, is the core, bitter realization that pushed me to investigate these claims so thoroughly: the only reason these allegations hold any power at al

> That, really, is the core, bitter realization that pushed me to investigate these claims so thoroughly: the only reason these allegations hold any power at all over them is their own broad agreement with progressives. If a progressive and a conservative sling “Nazi/commie” smears at each other, each can rally their own troops and proceed convinced more than ever of their opponents’ wretchedness. If people sling baseless accusations at someone like me, a frustrated centrist who spends most of my time online in “heterodox” spaces, I can laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing with my similarly world-weary friends and fellow travelers, then emerge with all the relationships I care about fully intact. This touches a nerve for me. I've taken a lot of shit on reddit in arguments where I was opposed to conservative people. I left angry, but mostly fine. Arguments where I was opposed to progressive people, on the other hand, left me really fucking shaken. People got vicious. One dug up some things I had said five years before which I'm not proud of, which everybody else took as permission to assume I was deeply racist and that was the only possible explanation for anything I said. That kind of immediate casual contempt in a community you otherwise mostly align with, where you previously felt safe speaking your mind, can be pretty damn startling.