>>dvh+73
Somewhat, but hot as those flames burn, they don't bring up the same depth of life-and-death emotion that real battle does. When people feel existentially threatened—which is very much how it feels in political battle—we go into survival mode, and in survival mode there is zero ability or willingness to see the other side as human. How does that manifest in internet forums? As snark, as name-calling, as refusal to acknowledge any truth in the opposing comment, a willingness to distort whatever is said in order to get the upper hand over it—basically, all the conceptual equivalents to what you would do physically if someone were literally trying to kill you.
One would think that the relative triviality and distance of internet conversation would allow for greater feelings of safety, but in practice it's exactly the opposite. It seems to provide the perfect blank screen on which to project all our shadows, and so we end up feeling surrounded by demons: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so..., and since they're demons of our own creation, they know exactly where all our sore spots and vulnerabilities are, and keep activating them unerringly.