Comment by TeMPOraL

> It's hard to fault them for this tendency–they have seen too often that complete openness tends to be risky, without rewards. They're reacting to the incentives the public sets.

I agree. The problem is systemic. That's the reason why e.g. I never say that some politician is stupid, and very rarely try to attribute malice.

I see how the system is broken, I just wish for some way to work around it, so that we could have a honest and factual conversation with the political sphere.

> One very small thing I'm trying to do is to speak up against unreasonable criticism when it's coming from "my side".

I try to do the same. People look at me weird sometimes, because it's not common. I've raised some eyebrows over the family table by being able to, in the scope of a single conversation, defend both atheism and religion from uncharitable attacks from the other side.