It's not just conservatives. This is this how the internet works now, and it applies to liberal bubbles too. Maybe it's my rose-tinted glasses, but I don't remember the internet being this bad before social media. You could chat on a forum (that was neither hard left not hard right) and play the devil's advocate if you wished. People forget that the first person they should debate honestly is themselves. Online discussion was a great way to have conversations as the devil's advocate. It was a great way to explore a subject. As long as you argued in good faith, used logic and conceded points when they were fairly won, you could have a long (and possibly fruitless) discussion without getting blocked, banned, threatened or called a Nazi.

Nowadays, liberal isn't "how you act" or "what your values are", is an identity. People identify as liberal: kind, right and "definitely not nazis". If you disagree with them, then you must be evil, right?

I've given up trying to explore contentious issues online. It's impossible to take a different view on a hot topic without getting blocked and reported. You don't even have to take a polar opposite view or get snarky. Sometimes you only have to ask a valid question (now known as a dog-whistle). It doesn't matter if you've got science or logic to back it up.

Someone said it on HN yesterday - the old words are failing us. I no longer recognise this thing that they call "liberal" today. I see it as "woke" - a cult, with dogma, heresies and grand inquisitors.