To be frank, this is Twitter in a nutshell to an outsider like me: a major personal time-waster that typically ends in anger and depression.
I guess it's not surprising that internal conversations for the platform that owns a significant share of the public discourse can't figure out how to discuss topics like this, but that sure makes me sad. Is it even possible to have effective conversations about these topics online at all? If Twitter can't figure out how to do it, then who can?
Yes. Just not at scale, and not in a way that prioritizes ad revenue via "engagement" at all cost.
Prioritizing longer form, in depth content, and discouraging "rapid reaction hot takes" helps a lot. The social media companies could optimize for this, and you see it on HN with the "Sorry, this particular thread is getting short, snippy, and too rapid, you can't reply to it for a while" mechanism.
But short, snippy, and angry is good for engagement. So it remains.
Sometimes some of the ones with guest writers will host a similar kind of exchange all in one place.
Only if there is some prior trust, if only by virtue of getting along for some time.
If you generally like the other person, and they come up with some incredibly stupid take you're more inclined to listen and ask for clarification than if the other person is unknown to you and says something that seems mildly wrong.
Political discussion is possible if there is a pre-existing and lasting relationship.