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The problem seems to me is endemic today: instead of civilized discussion and presentation of information, inevitably some people will reply with name-calling, scoffing and insults. And there is little criticism or censure for doing so; almost as if this were an acceptable adult response. We see it on TV whenever there is a political discussion or commentary, so it appears that even televised experts and intellectuals "debate" this way. I've never know true intellectuals to discuss issues with childish insults and name-calling, but then again true intellectuals tend to keep their own society--so many Americans nowadays would never experience a true discussion between intellectuals since such a thing would never be televised.
For anyone who is interested, there actually is a series of serious balanced debates called Intelligence Squared. Many of them are available on youtube.
I have watched many of them, and found one of the arguments in the debate on affirmative action particularly enlightening. That being that the brightest black students who take advantage of affirmative action to go to elite private schools have a lower graduation rate than more average black students who go to state schools. Affirmative action actually ends up hurting the exact people it was most intended to help. You get a lot further in life being a State University successful graduate than you do from being a Harvard dropout. In all the discussions I've seen around the web on affirmative action, I'd never seen that statistic before watching the Intelligence Squared debate.
Note I'm not trying to change the subject here to affirmative action. I'm just illustrating that the debates on Intelligence Squared have interesting and substantive arguments and are worth checking out for people interested in political debate without the insults.
I think counting to 30 before immediately sending a response to someone you disagree with helps. Recently, I thanked someone who disagreed with me for sharing their views. The second exchange between us was more civil than the first. I had let the poster know that they were not providing any facts, but engaging in ridicule and mere mockery the first time and had no chance to change my mind with that approach. You can stand your ground and still be civil. Avoid name calling or simply agree to disagree and say it is great we can live in a country where we can do that. I am not perfect, but that list of ten things (at beginning of thread) is really amazing (amazingly disappointing). The maturity of adults these days is barely above that of children at times.
When the fringe element can't back up their argument they resort to personal attacks and name calling. There seems to be a handful of very extreme people here who do nothing but post links to far left and far right web pages. Debate is one thing, wasting time with that nonsense is another. It's the same way in society now. If you disagree with one of these people, you're personally attacked. Calling the President "Obozo" I guess is supposed to be clever. It just shows me a total lack of respect for anyone, including the poster himself.
2: The ease at which posters here are able to call another a fascist or Nazi. Again, is your argument so weak that you cannot at least listen to another's argument and consider that there may be something constructive to take away and add to your stance on an issue?
Insulting people you disagree with like this is exactly part of the point the OP is trying to make about people not being civil.
Actually I thought it was pretty funny considering how many cranks here think that there is a vast conspiracy against them, as they post all their ideas from their home computers showing where they are located. The tin foil hatters seem to think that these conspiracies can discover secrets and eliminate wealthy public figures with impunity...but some how lonely crazy people on public forums (or street corners) escape their notice.
Godwin's Law is nothing more than a Liberal construct to avoid discussing tyrannical policies/methods by claiming anyone who mentions Hitler, automatically loses the argument.
Liberals have a lot of little catch phrases they learned on MSNBC.
Seriously, after being sick to death of the insults hurled at W for 8 years, then the impossibly hateful rhetoric aimed at Sarah by people too stupid to know she didn't say, "I can see Russia from my house", then when 0bama came along to hear nothing but RACIST if for any little reason you didn't want to vote for him, Republicans/conservatives just got sick to death of it and now are hurling it back. Is it the smart thing to do? No. Is it the mature thing to do? No. But sometimes shooting back is the only defense. And pitiful little whiney liberals and blacks can't take it.
Liberals have a lot of little catch phrases they learned on MSNBC.
Seriously, after being sick to death of the insults hurled at W for 8 years, then the impossibly hateful rhetoric aimed at Sarah by people too stupid to know she didn't say, "I can see Russia from my house", then when 0bama came along to hear nothing but RACIST if for any little reason you didn't want to vote for him, Republicans/conservatives just got sick to death of it and now are hurling it back. Is it the smart thing to do? No. Is it the mature thing to do? No. But sometimes shooting back is the only defense. And pitiful little whiney liberals and blacks can't take it.
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