How To Deal With Controversial Opinions

[instymp]

#2

On the internet, everyone can be someone they aren't in real life.

Even Superman.

Some people don't have much of a real life & the net gives them something to belong to. That's good!

 

[bcharles123]

While everyone is entitled to an opnion, and most of us here would make great sacrifices to ensure that people have the freedom to express their opinion, not all opinions are equal.
As the great Plato would say, "you probably shouldn't be asking the shoe repair guy what to do when you need triple bypass surgery"

 

[deathmetal]

@phil67:

Yep, I'm guilty of that and I'll try to make a concerted effort of posting a picture of myself as my avatar.

Actually, although I did a poor job of making it clear, I'm advocating the opposite: semi-anonymous if not anonymous user accounts.
Separate the ideas from the person.
@bcharles123:

As the great Plato would say, "you probably shouldn't be asking the shoe repair guy what to do when you need triple bypass surgery"

One of the great ideas of our time. Everyone is good at something -- but leadership/philosophy/judgment is as special a category as brain surgery or cabinet-making.

 

[jefff]

It seems to me that people don't want to have a discussion. Too many folks want their own thoughts and ideas parroted back at them.
It's hard to talk to anyone so cemented in their views that they have NO wiggle room.
Moral certainty is the scariest thing I can think of.

 

[deathmetal]

Preserve the mystery, I say.
But at the end of the day -- a path must be chosen.

 

[jefff]

Wisely chosen..... Or not

 

[deathmetal]

We could always treat debates like Socrates -- open-minded, but always burrowing to the center of every issue.
Unsettling and yet, stabilizing!

 

[brian64]

There is so much that is not controversial, but should be imo. Aligning oneself with the status quo always appears reasonable at first, until you come to understand just how unreasonable the status quo actually is.

 

[deathmetal]

Aligning oneself with the status quo always appears reasonable at first, until you come to understand just how unreasonable the status quo actually is.

Denial is easy; realism is hard.

 

[cobguy]

But at the end of the day -- a path must be chosen.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on.
-Led Zeppelin

 

[iamn8]

"Moral certainty is the scariest thing I can think of."
How certain are you of this?

 

[jefff]

I waffle on it quite a bit.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I have a friend who seems to have literally gone over the right wing edge. It seems to have much to do with the community in which he lives (majority of Mormons) for instance is absolutely opposed to the notion that climate change is really happening; I sent him a link to Wikipedia about climate change denial and left it at that. But I'm too damn old to care about changing minds that refuse to see or understand while On a foundation of reason .

 

[iamn8]

I'm a hardcore science buff and global climate change is irrefutable. What isn't so certain is what, if anything, can change it. It's a freight train traveling at the speed of sound without brakes. Convincing people to alter their lives dramatically for something which won't be seen for at least a century or more... It's not likely, not one bit.

 

[deathmetal]

"Moral certainty is the scariest thing I can think of."
How certain are you of this?

An excellent revelation of paradox.
Here's another:
"Everything is subjective!" -- except that statement, where "nothing is subjective" has no paradox.

 

[prairiedruid]

Again a silly argument; climate does change over time. This little rock has been going through all sorts of climate change over the billions of years it has existed. The question isn't does climate change exist but what impact do we little viruses have on climate change. I tend to think we do have a large impact on climate change; planet seems to be trending warmer in a global sense which might be good since we're heading into a solar minimum in the next 10 years.

 

[tbradsim1]

My Grandpaws words of Wisdom on weather change ( It started when people would cook inside and shit outside, now they cook outside and shit inside). Truer words were never spoken. :rofl:

 

[iamn8]

... and that, my friend, is how it's done

 

[sparrowhawk]

Sorry I didn't have the sense to not bring up that particular issue . I evidently made some unwarranted assumptions and you know they say about that last word . Apologies again .

 

[jmill208]

My Grandpaws words of Wisdom on weather change ( It started when people would cook inside and shit outside, now they cook outside and shit inside). Truer words were never spoken. :rofl:

Brilliant!