Comment by somenameforme

I find that in online discussions people become much more downvote/hostile oriented when they know they're wrong, but can't really argue against it, rather than when people disagree and genuinely think they're right - which tends to lead to nice debate.

People, in the short term, don't like the cognitive dissonance being rattled, but I think in the longrun that's what has the biggest impact on our ideological direction shifting.