View Single Post
Old 03-08-2007, 11:15 AM   #22
clwk
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 138
United_States
Offline
Re: Subject/Tone of Threads

Quote:
John Riggs wrote: View Post
Unfortunately, some seem to always chose the way that seems to rile the feathers of others.
And when people disagree at a sufficiently fundamental level, that will always be there. It does not really matter who takes the 'aggressive' versus the 'passive-aggressive' stance when communication breaks down. That tends to depend on who is attempting to frame their position as somehow outside or superior to the actual point of contention. That *I* am the one playing by 'the rules' is the implicit position of the passive aggressive arguer. Sometimes that position has to be called.
Quote:
I realize some are not as smooth with their wordings and tend to value directness, etc. However, many of the comments could simply be put a better way and facilitate discussion rather than result in four or five defensive or offensive repsonses.
So true. Things could be better in the world, but can calls for politeness help much amongst those who have abandoned it?

Quote:
The thread this spun off started out great, however, after a while I simply could not mentally sift through all the trash talking enough to get anything out of it. If that was cut out the thread would be about half the size or less. For me, it turned something I was interested in to something that ultimately serve little purpose because I was simply not willing to continuously sift through the verbal warfare to try and find the potential gems.
It sounds like you are saying that your desire for 'information' is less than your desire to 'sift through' the noise. That is a personal choice, or at least a personal reality. There are two solutions. One, deal with the noise; or two: try to change the situation.

In terms of Two. Let's assume the situation is Chimpanzees vs Brain Surgeons, but no-one knows which is which. We cannot expect the Chimps to become civilized. It is not in their nature. Nor can we expect the Brain Surgeons to treat the Chimps as equals. If we pretend there is not a disagreement so fundamental that each position demands a total negation of the other, then we can imagine that 'civil discourse' is the answer. The problem is that by civilly allowing the Chimps to take their turn with the scalpel, the Brain Surgeons prove irresponsible.

Dung is going to fly. Readers have to decide whether it's worth enduring dung to attend a public lecture on brain surgery. It might not be, but it's definitely not worth confusing the two 'matters'.

Chhi'mèd
  Reply With Quote