When there are *sides* to an issue it almost cannot be discussed.
The existence of sides tends to crowd out non-side discourse.
If a post, statement, comment, is about an issue involving developed "sides" then it will be read, by most readers, primarily to determine which "side" it is on.
It is unthinkable to the "sided" that anyone is not on a side, and often everyone who is not on side X is automatically on the other side, because if you aren't part of the solution, etc..
This phenomenon involves the categorical exclusion of principled opposition.
If you question datum Z then you have blood on your hands, even if Z is false on its face. What motive would a person have to note the obvious falsity of Z???
The idea that somebody might just not like bullshit is excluded as a possibility since it is not one of the sides.
It will be noted that, "You sound just like them," because they are always pointing out that Z is false, and they are not principled. (e.g., "They say that on Fox News."
The problem is that if Z is obviously false then of course ones' mal-intended and unprincipled enemies will cite the falseness of Z. It is low-hanging fruit, as arguments go.
The fact that some unprincipled person seizes on the falseness of Z does not rehabilitate Z or make it implausible that somebody who isn't on a "side" might be troubled that Z is obviously false.
And so on.
And, as noted, if you say something that is outside a two-sides framework you will be perceived by almost all players as being on the other side.
Also, a funny thing about "sided" topics... they end up being discussed in opposite terms. Once one side takes up sarcasm as the operative mode least open to contradiction then both sides must do so, in arms race fashion, with the perverse result that...
A sided argument eventually devolves to an argument between two straw men with each "side" arguing the contrary of their real position as stupidly as possible, and nobody saying anything sincere.
And the single stupidest thing anyone on the other side has ever said is promoted to be the entirety of that side's view and all persons not on my side think exactly that one stupidest possible thing.
Confession: I am sometimes guilty of this stuff. We all argument within environments, and a pathological environment will favor pathological modes of argument as being actually the most effective argument. Which is pathological.
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