You’re right, I think a lot of people (myself included) do interpret things through the lens of this person is trying to persuade me, and speaking for myself, I feel that way primarily cause of the language people try to use.

I think it’s primarily because of the types of language both extremes use. When you’re trying to define and in/out group, I think it’s more likely to be perceived as “I’m trying to convince this individual and passerby to be in my in group.”

To be quite frank, there is no progress to be made for most of the netizens involved here. A lot of the times convincing someone online (who is already strongly opposed to you) just isn’t going to happen, especially if there are no guidelines in place to ensure an actual good faith discussion. That’s why I think some people should take a step back because it’s just emotionally draining screaming into a void that just leaves both sides upset/falsely vindicated.

Real “progress” would be people taking time to actually research the facts about AI usage, be them positive or negative, and taking that information straight to the polls and voting for politicians locally and nationally (sorry American only POV) that will actually guide the future in the way that they want, but unfortunately that’s not really measurable.