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I have sympathy with that point of view. The difficulty is that while a few people will engage with an open mind, there are many - seemingly greater in number - that will not. And those people will find their opinions cemented ever more firmly into prejudices by trolling, clickbait, etc. Consider the referendum: did all the people that voted leave really take the time and effort to understand the ultimate implications of their vote, or might many (perhaps even a majority) of them have allowed themselves to be led by provocative opinion pieces? And while a few well-intentioned and open-minded people seek to talk through the issues, many more will simply get on with pursuing their agenda regardless. And they will probably succeed.
boristrump
@pdlouche
As a graduate of humanities, for me anything that provokes discourse is worthwhile.
Trolling, clickbaiting, challenging, whatever that article is it raises - with actual reference to source material (laws, articles) - questions on the position of a cyclist. It may have an impact on a minimum of one person, but people are not as a whole selfless or politically correct nor are they inherently good or bad.
The reality is, if only to play devil's advocate, we should be free to openly discuss the 'wrong' side of an argument. If you are too busy shutting it down as bad or wrong, you're missing an opportunity to understand why anyone else may think of it as right.