There are pubs where in an attempt to avoid disputes that get out of hand they have a rule that nothing in any way controversial is discussed. That means no politics. No religion. No sport...

If you're minded to have an argument you can have an argument about anything. And if you're so inclined you can get under peoples skin and with any luck they'll turn nasty, and the whole argument can turn nasty. And someone will suggest that its best to avoid that subject. And the list gets longer...

It isn't the topics that cause the damage, it's the attitude of mind that sets out to twist the arguments and discussions into quarrels.

In face to face discussion it can be very difficult to avoid that kind of shift from exchanging opinions and facts into just offending each other. That's what is special about this kind of medium we have here - we can hold back and look at what we are writing and change it so that it doesn't just involve striking back. The other side to that is that it is possible for those among us and around us who have other motives to lay out the poison so that it will be picked up.

If we back off from whole tracts of territory because of possible disagreement, what will be left for us? After all, we can quarrel about issues that are strictly to do with song and music after all. Whatever a song is about, there's the potential in it that could lead to disagreement. And any disagreement can lead us into a song, not necessarily in the same thread, but soon enough.

The real problem with the sectarian bigotry that sometimes shows up doesn't live in its offensiveness in itself - it's easy enough to scroll past it. The danger is that the tone of it can be catching, and it can have the effect of tripping us into trying to hurt each other rather than just explore our differences. For example a sectarian or racist post can lead on to an exchange in which someone else gets unjustly accused of being sectarian or racist, and that is taken as fighting talk, and a fight starts.