"Hate to be the bearer, Steve, but this part is not working out so well. Most of these reported discussions are with dramatically dishonest and unstable people who all end up blocking you."

Actually, only a tiny percentage of my conversations end with the person blocking me. I'd guess less than 1 or 2%. And Medium, as toxic as it can sometimes be, is far better than somewhere like Twitter, for example. Plenty of people there have an interest in more than scoring gotcha points.

Online discourse is difficult. No sane person would deny that. But it takes two people to have a fight. The way people talk to you is absolutely a reflection of the way you talk to them. And when you come across the occasional, inevitable idiot, somebody has to be the grown up in the room. Either that, or recognise the conversation really is a waste of time and just don't bother replying.

But yeah, though people rarely change their minds dramatically mid-conversation, I have quite a few commenters who started out antagonistic and have slowly become more reasonable and thoughtful. Or who have understood that there's more to consider about an issue than they initially thought. And some of them have done the same for me of course.

This is possible. No matter how many times you try to tell me that it's not. 😄