I was absolutely astonished by the civility and depth of understanding people showed for each others' positions when I visited that sub. I think in order to have a successful post you can't just dump on "the opponent", you have to make something everyone from any place on the compass will laugh at, even if it's a bit of a dig. That really incentivizes empathy since you can't laugh _with_ people you disagree with if you don't really understand where they're coming from.