A site I used to frequent allowed both liberals and conservatives to “go at it” with virtually no language filters. The ratio was about 10% conservative and the rest liberals. Although conservatives would sometimes do it too, the MO of the liberals was ad-hominem attack.
Then an interesting thing happened. They stopped allowing fowl language. A lot of liberals ended up getting “temp banned” for a week or a month. The ratio became more like 20% conservative and the rest liberal.
Then the hammer came down. They stopped allowing ad-hominem attacks. You should have seen the complaints. Liberals said things like, “how else are you supposed to respond to the stupid remarks of conservatives”. They were intellectually lazy and felt that “their people” would do what they did: pile on via ad hominem.
But one by one they were temp banned and some permabanned. They could not defend themselves when they actually had to make a lucid argument. It became fun for me. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. But more and more of them just disappeared. The result? The site became about 60% conservative and the rest liberal. And us conservatives were getting “respectfully” cocky about it. We (most of us) knew how to argue. We knew our facts. They didn’t have a chance. They posted less and less.
The site is now gone.
Doesn't that mean you couldn't flip anyone the bird?