This is part of the process that creates polarization and echo chambers. If you see an attempt at social shaming and feel triggered, thatβs the second-best result from the perspective of the person who put it up. The best result is that you never went into that space at all. This isnβt just about keeping conservatives out of socialist spaces. Itβs also about defining what kind of socialist the socialist space is for, and what kind of ideas good socialists are or arenβt allowed to hold.
I think easily 90% of online discussion is of this form right now, including some long and carefully-written thinkpieces with lots of citations. The point isnβt that it literally uses the word βfuckβ, the point is that the active ingredient isnβt persuasiveness, itβs the ability to make some people feel like theyβre suffering social costs for their opinion. Even really good arguments that are persuasive can be used this way if someone links them on Facebook with βThis is why I keep saying Democrats are dumbβ underneath it.
I think the author goes off the rails late in the article where it's clear they don't realize this is all well-trod ground literally a thousand years ago. His examples of 'winning an argument' were all incrementalist positivist pap as you would expect from a modern science goon.