"It's a cultural belief in the value of other people's perspectives and competing ideas that helps progress us forward," he said.
"More and more we see people resist views that diverge from theirs and not give others the time of day to consider their perspective."
But that is far too simplistic according to Dr Sarah Hendrica Bickerton from Tohatoha, an organisation working with the digital world, public sector and other institutions.
"The Enlightenment idea of speech was that all speech is the same. But we know speech impacts groups differently," she said.
"We saw that particularly with Posie Parker, where arguments were made about the way in which Posie Parker was doing speech.
"But that was not to debate an issue, rather to make a statement and merely put it out there in the public sphere, to say, 'trans people do not deserve rights'."
"Those kinds of statements are not statements designed to be discussed and debated, they are merely statements to dehumanise trans people."
Both sides agree social media has changed the way we debate.
But Bickerton says it has also allowed for more voices to challenge the dominant narrative.
"We are seeing these alternative value systems to enlightenment traditions come into conflict," she said.
"Particularly with Māori co-governance, the entire framing of it is in a Western concept of speech, of rights and responsibilities, and matching value systems.
"The frame it is put in negates the very validity of a differing view point, and leads to conflict."
Former New Zealand prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer says democracy depends on civil society having a reasonable debate.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer says the “weird times” we are living in “makes people uncertain”. (Source: 1News)
"Parliament is the central democratic institution of the country and they are still debating there. They do very little else."
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