Caltrops - Biohazard: Code Veronica





	[quote name="Senor Barborito MetaFilter Post"][quote]Ryvar, we all know how you're superior to all of us by not playing the game. You can pat yourself on the back now. I'll give you full points for attempting to sow the seeds of a neutrality-based intellectual circle-jerk, but let's face it that's not going to happen... that would be like starting a political party for "extreme centrists". Online debate isn't about winning over the opposition -- that'll never happen. I will probably never say that George W. Bush is a great President (although I can't discount the possibility of extreme brain damage), and likewise dios, 1016, ParisParamus and Steve_at_Linwood will probably never say that George W. Bush is a terrible President. That's just the way things are. If you're really looking to change other people's minds, I put it to you that an online forum is the last place you want to be.[/quote] To start with, I called myself out right from the beginning because I knew that what I did was only marginally more useful than what's going on here. There was a chance, however minute, of it getting someone to not add another worthless comment and instead do some reading on the topic before going forth and making an honest attempt to engage someone on the topic and perhaps achieve a new understanding for one or both of them. Probably not, but it seems like that possibility - however remote - is better than all of us sitting around telling each other how stupid Christians are. I say this as an ardent atheist. It's bullshit elitism on my part, I completely admit, but there's a snowball's chance in Hell it might do some good. A parade of jeering accomplishes nothing other than assauging the egos of the intellectually insecure. As for online debate - I've had a lot of very, very long conversations about foreign policy with Steve@ over the past couple years with positive results. Both of us wound up learning things we did not know, and having more nuanced positions on the topics we discussed as a result of our mutual attempt to engage in honest intellectual debate. He changed my mind about a couple of points involving Iran, and I've gotten him to admit he was wrong - or rather uninformed - about a point or two on Iraq. That may be anecdotal rather than statistically significant, but your contention that online debate utterly fails as a means of resolving ideological differences or even simply accomplishing anything productive is false. Sometimes you can engage strangers over the Internet in a topic and change their mind in some manner. posted by Ryvar at 3:11 PM PST on April 28 [/quote]