coldbrightsunlight wrote:But each thread, conversation and interaction is a chance to be better and I don't think the best reaction to "it's difficult to talk about controversial things without this happening" is not to try at all.
I agree with this 100%.
jwar, nothing but love and respect for you too (and you clearly have demonstrated your ability to handle/mitigate difficult situation in your real life), but I don't think it's prudent to have a thread deleted just because it goes awry. All things considered some names have been said but no one is physically threatening anyone. I think an open discussion is absolutely essential to forums. Tom and The Velvet Hammer have been through enough this year with difficult threads. I think there needs to be a better way of the user base dealing with it.
I agree with you.
"I do not have the ability to think rationally 90% of the time and I also change my mind at the drop of a hat".
goroth wrote:I stand 100% for what I said - a statement like what echorec said to start this shitstorm was either trolling or fucking stupid. It's seldom that I get wound up and call people out like that, but it got me wound up.
It doesn't matter what I think. If you feel wound up, then go for it. The results are predictable if nothing else, which is something I'm sure we agree on.
Exactly - the results are predictable.
So I should have perhaps predicted them before stating it. And perhaps stated the same sentiment in a manner more conducive to dialogue and less to helping a dude implode.
I'm not really being critical, and now I'm just doing the same thing that I'm saying is bothering me with this thread and with threads like this one. If there's substance and stake in a legitimate conversation, there are ways to approach it that can actually be useful. It's not like we're fighting Nazis here and we 'win' by exterminating bad thinking. Echorec said some dumb inaccurate shit and got ripped for it. It obviously entrenched him more deeply in whatever he was thinking instead of doing something positive.
The impulse to call out dumb shit as dumb shit is very sensible, but ultimately it's about the person who does the calling out and not about conversation or progress. Hence, a possible reason we have horrifying political discourse.
What the fuck do I know. I fail to educate people on a daily basis.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
