Sometimes this awkwardness is diagnosed by one side or the other of the exchange as motivated by causes that are not the case or attributes characteristics that seem plausible from their vantage point.
If that chance meeting awkwardness is overcome, great profit by association often results, both for the forum and for the individual.
One of my high school teachers had us do a quick exercise in speech class one year, he asked a question about a very charged topic (which I won’t reveal) and asked the students where we stood in our opinions, then made us research and argue the opposite view point. Everyone should go through that once in a while. Once you have your mind set on one opinion, try looking at it from the other side.