> Do you find yourself frustrated working with your colleagues, thinking, “you know, I bet if they felt more free to utter racist slurs or endorse illegal activities, we would get a ton more done around here”?
I once visited Parler just to see what it was like, and pretty quickly found that the answer to your question seems to be yes. There are definitely people who feel they need that kind of dialog in their life. You might not think it was necessary in a random conversation about programming or something, but it turns out that isn't a universally held position.
I've never experienced that in any setting in my life. People will say yes to advocate a political point, but that's not how humans socialize anywhere, anytime in history afaik.
I agree with you for IRL interactions, but we need to accept that we now operate in two planes of (para-)socialization: IRL and online.
There are plenty of humans who enjoy vulgar online socialization, and for many of them, online (para-)socializing is the increasingly dominant form of socialization. The mere fact that it's easier to socialize over the internet means it will always be the plane of least resistance. I won't be meeting anyone at 3am but I'll happily shitpost on HN about Covid vaccines.
For anyone who gets angry during their two minutes of hate sessions, consider this: try to imagine the most absurd caricature of your out-group (whether that be "leftists" or "ultra MAGA republicans"). Then try to imagine all the people you know in real life who belong to that group. Do they really fit the stereotype in your head, or have you applied all the worst attributes of the collective to everyone in it?
This is why I don't buy all the "civil war" talk - just because people interact more angrily online doesn't mean they're willing to fight each other in real life. We need to modulate our emotional responses to the tiny slice of hyperreality we consume through our phones.
> just because people interact more angrily online doesn't mean they're willing to fight each other in real life
There is a lot of evidence that says online experiences influence offline behavior (both are "real life"). Look at the very many, online-inspired, extremist attacks. Look at the impact of misinformation and disinformation - as a simple example, it killed possibly hundreds of thousands of Americans do to poor vaccination rates.
I once visited Parler just to see what it was like, and pretty quickly found that the answer to your question seems to be yes. There are definitely people who feel they need that kind of dialog in their life. You might not think it was necessary in a random conversation about programming or something, but it turns out that isn't a universally held position.