Monday Update 12-13-10

I did not know that. Thanks for telling me!

Groundrules for conversations on this blog appear in my LJ Profile under "On Civility," with a few helpful links. Periodically a discussion heats up and I remind people to treat each other with care. Your patience is appreciated.

>>I quite enjoyed the discussion with siege, and have really enjoyed several other conversations on your journal. <<

That's good to hear. That post went wild -- almost a hundred comments thus far.

>> I am finding it disturbingly rare that I can have a conversation with people of liberal bent without the conversation going directly to insults and refusing to be drawn back to the issues.<<

I have the same problem regularly with conservatives, and not infrequently with liberals -- and it doesn't even completely correlate to whether or not I agree with them on the issue at hand.

>>I regret and am worried by that, because it always used to be the case that those conversations were the norm. Most of my friends throughout my life have been of liberal bent, and we always discussed politics, but then that started going downhill. <<

I have observed a similiar trend. *ponder* I think it accompanies a shift from "opposing party is annoying but sometimes interesting" to "ZOMG opposing party is going to DESTROY THE WORLD!!!"

>>The conversations rarely if ever resulted in any changed opinions, but they did result in better information and were frankly fun.<<

Once in a while, I'll shift my stance on something due to new information. It's usually either a compelling single insight, or a long-term accrual of developing data. Most of the time what interests me is the parallax: understanding why someone else takes the stance they do is often useful in finding a mutually acceptable and effective solution to a problem. So one thing I do in political discussions is work down through the layers in search of common ground, then try to expand that. We might not agree on "how to fix the economy" but probably agree that "the economy is shabby right now." Somewhere between those two layers might be a solution that involves bits from different people's ideas. Parallax is also helpful for refining ideas, because people have different concerns -- they will spot and address different flaws. If you can't criticize, you can't optimize.

>> I am distressed by the caricaturization and demonization of both opposing parties (even though there are figures on the national stage from both parties that scare the crap out of me). <<

nodNODnod

>>So thank you for running a reasonably civil forum. If you should happen to want me to shut up on any given thread, please feel free to say so :) <<

You're welcome. I'm more likely to say "This is starting to overheat; please cool it down a bit" than plain "Stop," though.

I try to make this a safe place for people to discuss things. Sometimes with the important issues, conversation gets heated -- hence the reminder for rationality. I appreciate the efforts my audience members make to participate in civil discussions.