• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Debate

Do you think the anger and vitriol prevents actual debate

  • Yes

    Votes: 16 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 3 9.4%
  • Other (in a post)

    Votes: 4 12.5%
  • Rootabega

    Votes: 9 28.1%

  • Total voters
    32

Slartibartfast

Jesus loves you.
Supporting Member
DP Veteran
Monthly Donator
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
71,669
Reaction score
58,049
Location
NE Ohio
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Liberal
Do you feel that the anger and vitriol in this forum prevents actual debate?
 
Do you feel that the anger and vitriol in this forum prevents actual debate?

Sometimes. Some threads I stay out of, because there's nothing going on there but hyperpartisan quackery. Sometimes though, you can get a good intellectual debate going.

Btw, you should not have added rootabega as an option; it is simply too tempting to pass up a chance to vote "rootabega" on something. I wish "rootabega" had been an option in the last national election...
 
Do you feel that the anger and vitriol in this forum prevents actual debate?

Well no because there isn't anger and vitriol in every thread.

IMO what hurts threads more than anything is the "turd in the punch bowl" poster. Let's say there's a thread going, people are posting their opinions, there's disagreements of course but everyone is staying pretty much on topic and then...

>>>SPLASH!<<< The turd drops.

It's usually someone that flings an insult and a little name calling. Sometimes they'll point out someone else's hypocrisy from a post 3 weeks ago and then rub it in a poster's face. Just a little nit-picking. Just enough to get the ball rolling. Next comes a dash of hyperbole...

And away we go. The turd is fully in the bowl...
 
My concern, and the reason I made this post is the staggering amounts of useless comments like "liberals hate freedom" "conservatives hate poor people" etc that might make the poster feel good, but are unproductive in the debate. (Yes, I am guilty of it too :3oops:).

I just find it annoying and it seems to slow down the actual exchange of ideas, viewpoints, facts, etc that a website like this can otherwise do a good job at providing.
 
Sometimes. Some threads I stay out of, because there's nothing going on there but hyperpartisan quackery. Sometimes though, you can get a good intellectual debate going.

Btw, you should not have added rootabega as an option; it is simply too tempting to pass up a chance to vote "rootabega" on something. I wish "rootabega" had been an option in the last national election...



hehehe ... it was impossible to pass up :2razz:
 
My concern, and the reason I made this post is the staggering amounts of useless comments like "liberals hate freedom" "conservatives hate poor people" etc that might make the poster feel good, but are unproductive in the debate. (Yes, I am guilty of it too :3oops:).

I just find it annoying and it seems to slow down the actual exchange of ideas, viewpoints, facts, etc that a website like this can otherwise do a good job at providing.

"liberals hate freedom" "conservatives hate poor people"

Yes. I agree. And those would be examples of turds.
 
Sometimes debating politics with other people makes me want to crawl into a hole where I can have contentment all by myself and not be bothered by what upsets other people so much. The only thing that stops me from doing so is that I would have to defend my position of crawling into a hole and having contentment all by myself by those who would oppose such an action.
 
It is spelled, rutabaga, btw.
 
It is spelled, rutabaga, btw.

True, but rootabega is a much more hilarious spelling, for which reason I would excuse the error. :mrgreen:
 
Hrm. It looks like I unintentionally derailed my own thread...


epic-fail-scent-fail.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hrm. It looks like I unintentionally derailed my own thread...


epic-fail-scent-fail.jpg


I am totally cracking up, that is HY-larious. Even better than rootabega. :mrgreen:
 
A lot of it isn't anger or vitriol, it's emotionalism. People are unable to debate the facts, they throw around opinion and emotionalism and expect that to substitute for actual demonstrable, objective evidence.

It doesn't.
 
rootabegas hate carrots!

Slander! Stuff and nonsense! It was the carrots who hated rootabegas first! Remember the Anti-Rootabega Movement of the 1840's! Rootabegas are perfectly justified in hating carrots, because the Orange Root has been keepin' the Rootebega down!
 
I wish I could vote rootebega again on something. That was really fun.

Can you imagine if rootabega won the 2012 Presidential election? Wouldn't that be awesome? I mean, think of the historic moment that would be....this country has never elected any root vegetable to the presidency...oh, waitaminute...yes it has. :mrgreen:
 
I wish I could vote rootebega again on something. That was really fun.

Can you imagine if rootabega won the 2012 Presidential election? Wouldn't that be awesome? I mean, think of the historic moment that would be....this country has never elected any root vegetable to the presidency...oh, waitaminute...yes it has. :mrgreen:

I am glad you are so easily amused :2razz:
 
You can milk a rootebega?
 
Last edited:
Do you feel that the anger and vitriol in this forum prevents actual debate?

I've been around the internet, and trust me: this place is the most civil that online political debate gets.
 
Nice try American, but that was a sad, sad attempt at humor.

WEAK.jpg
 
Really good question, btw.

It depends and this is an issue that irritates me a lot, here. There are issues that get folks angry, and expressing that anger is not the problem. It is HOW it is expressed. Remember, PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING. Comments like "all liberals hate America", or "all conservatives are fascists" are flamebait and irrelevant absolutes. They do nothing to further debate; they are inaccurate foolishness that does nothing but demonstrate the hackery and overgeneralized, misrepresentative self-serving attacks of the person making them. Makes THAT person look ridiculous. Best thing one can do in situations like this is one of two things: 1) ignore the person; they've added nothing intelligent to the debate anyway, or 2) confront them on the logical fallacy of their absolute statement, and publicly make them look silly.

Fortunately, we have a lot of good posters here, who are good at both of the above response actions. Folks who do things like that get called on their behavior. Doesn't always stop it, but it does act as a warning for posters on who to really listen to and who to not.
 
Humor is my antidote for my own anger.
 
Do you feel that the anger and vitriol in this forum prevents actual debate?

Yes.

Now passion and conviction... that's another story.
 
Back
Top Bottom