[rnd0]

>Can't we just have a place where we discuss things without bringing in the latest political talking point?

Not since Arab Spring or rather shortly thereafter. I'm not sure if there was a ramp-up of "active measures" style agitation, "cointelpro" style group antagonism or what the exact mechanism was. But any way you slice it, it has become increasingly impossible for competing groups within the same sphere to communicate much less for their to be a dialog between the left and right.

No one can dialog with anybody else because the people upstairs want it that way!