Linus is basically a “centrist dad” but that’s fine with me.

I think we’ve both got different perspectives on this that aren’t going to change so let’s agree to disagree.

I’d argue that attempts to force people to change their beliefs too quickly has led to a conservative reactionary backlash in recent years.

Recent surveys are showing an increase in people, in particular young people, harbouring intolerant views vs even 10 years ago. I think that suggests that the maximalist progressive rhetoric on social media is turning people away from progressive causes.

Creating a more tolerant society is a frustratingly slow process where the general public gradually become acclimatised to new ways of thinking. Forcing it creates a backlash because people need to feel like they arrived at their ideas themselves. There used to be an acknowledgement that it was a mutual process which is missing from the debate today.

Queer people were oppressed by the social norm of not judging people for their political beliefs?

They worked fine in the 90s/00s. Social media and smart phones has just come in and created hyper-polarization since then. Human beings aren’t designed to be able to handle getting news so quickly from such a wide variety of (dubious) sources.

People cast their vote for a variety of complicated reasons, often against their own interests. Someone might be stupid because they voted for a bad ticket but I don’t think they are necessarily immoral.

These old norms like not judging others for their politics used to function fine before social media propagated and the culture wars flared up. I’d be hesitant to throw the old norms away, even in our current circumstances, because after they go there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get them back.