Civil debates and dissenting opinions

[s_forbes]

Based on a recently short lived thread (assuming because the poster used an anon account), I'm curious what the Chief Delphi user base opinion is regarding hot and touchy subjects that result in polarized debate. Are these discussions healthy or detrimental to the community, and at what point should they be shut down?

I would hope that we can discuss all subjects pertaining to FIRST and the robotics community, and do so without fear of backlash due to conflicting opinions, but recently I've been getting the sense that certain topics are out of bounds.

Thoughts?