>> I do realize that a good percentage of the HN college-educated audience is in the grips of ideology that was pounded into their heads.

> So you pidgeon-hole and dismiss everyone who might have a different perspective before they even speak

Oh, no, you are wrong. They speak plenty. Just try posting even moderate perspectives here on HN and see what reactions you get. Facts are, well, facts.

Try it. Go ahead. Create a throw-away account and comment on this thread with even a moderate view or maybe a slightly right-of-center view. No need to go to the extremes. Do that and then watch what happens. It will be educational.

> There are groups of people in the US that have long suffered the same treatment you did with police

Of course, and that's not even remotely acceptable. That does not mean that a moderate ideological perspective is wrong and one has to go full tilt militant in the other direction.

Do you even realize that probably somewhere around 90% of the people in the US (and likely almost any society), pretty much want the same things?

What are these things?

Without attempting to make an exhaustive list: Provide for their families, have a nice peaceful life, receive and offer tolerance, coexist with everyone else, live in a safe society rules by sensible laws, have a future, have opportunities, care for others in need, be socially tolerant and fiscally responsible, etc.

There's a very small minority (far less than 10%) of society who, well, fuck it up for everyone else by becoming militant at the extremes.

Take college professors.

In round numbers, there are about 300K in the US. That's 0.1% of the population. They have access to around twenty million students. That's about 7% of the US population. That is an incredible force multiplier. If that small group of people is ideologically militant --left, right, it does not matter-- you have the makings of a societal disaster. Just 0.1% of the population has --and tends to exercise-- incredible power with long-term consequences.

Most people are in some middle-of-the-road reasonable stance on most issues. That's the aspect of society that those intensely indoctrinated (on any side) cease to understand. Indoctrination makes people see the world only in extreme terms. Societies do not benefit from this at all.

In other words, your neighbor isn't a hateful, criminal, stupid, fire-breathing monster just because they voted Democrat or Republican. Thinking that way is tragically wrong and seriously misplaced.

> Dissenting and critical views are outlawed in many public arenas, such as schools, across large parts of the country.

Yes, exactly. And that is not acceptable, in any form, whether the ideology leans right or left.

The more you polarize societies the farther they are willing to go when they take power.

I sometimes see it in terms of Control System Theory.

https://roymech.org/Related/Control/Stability.html

This kind of polarization leads to unstable systems. Unstable systems produce violent oscillations, which typically result in failure.

While it is unlikely that society can approach something like a critically-damped system, that should be the (asymptotic) objective. This means balance, not radicalization. When over 90% of the people working at a social media platform (implementing the systems and rules) are ideologically uniform --faction does not matter-- the outcome will not be of benefit to society. That control system will peg to one limit and result in violent ever-increasing oscillations.

The solution to this problem starts with education. That 0.1% of society should not have the power to indoctrinate tens of millions of people over decades.