Is rational discussion/debate disappearing?

[Devildoc]

I think there is a difference between discussion and debate (at least classically), and I don't have a problem if you come in prepositioned that you aren't going to change your mind. Just be rational about it, argue your position, and let's have the give-and-take. I think he schematic/algorithm is too rigid. I mean, I have had conversations with people over a decade that finally started swaying my opinion (or theirs).

 

[Gunz]

1. People don't read enough fucking books anymore.
2. They fuck around on the internet all day and get their opinions from idiots.
3. There are a lot of stupid people in the world...now, because we're all electronically connected, we get to hear them whether we want to or not.

 

[DC]

1. People don't read enough fucking books anymore.
2. They fuck around on the internet all day and get their opinions from idiots.
3. There are a lot of stupid people in the world...now, because we're all electronically connected, we get to hear them whether we want to or not.

Says it all.

 

[Red Flag 1]

1. People don't read enough fucking books anymore.
2. They fuck around on the internet all day and get their opinions from idiots.
3. There are a lot of stupid people in the world...now, because we're all electronically connected, we get to hear them whether we want to or not.

 

[Topkick]

There is another subset who has a, not, "a couple" just "A" 24/7 news channel on telling them how to think. Individual and reasoned thought has left much of the planet.

Agree. Often, when I have political disagreements, the preferred news channel actually becomes part of the conversation.

 

[Red Flag 1]

Ir

 

[Marine0311]

It is but it can be fixed. I don'the know how I do believe if this continues to slide downward we are in serious trouble.

 

[DC]

IMHO, the nation would benefit if there was a return to the news at the 1700 to 1800 for local then national news, the same at whta was it 2200 or 2300. You got news then. Examined vetted, for the most part, and the reported on. We will never see those days again. The “news cycle seems to be about an hour or so then tha rest of the day is shaping and spinning the news to fit a particular enf. We have moved away from news to a 24/7 political advertizement.

Watch OAN. 30 min. no opinion just facts. Like old time news. If you do want opinion they have a couple shows on. But majority is news only. Fox,CNN etc are the same but different.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Watch OAN. 30 min. no opinion just facts. Like old time news. If you do want opinion they have a couple shows on. But majority is news only. Fox,CNN etc are the same but different.

I've not watched the vids yet, but OAN is the only site I get my regular news from anymore.

To add - well and Daily Mail of course!

 

[DC]

Check out the Daily Wire

 

[Grunt]

It's up to us - the viewers - to change what the "news" presents to us. If a large majority of us quit watching the vomit and turn to OAN, their ratings would show and they would eventually take some sort of action. Even if it made them report with a 30-40% accuracy rating...that would be a change for the better.

 

[SaintKP]

Personally I like BBC, NPR, Reuturs, AP, and I'll go to NYT for their in depth articles. I'll have to take a look at OAN though.

 

[RackMaster]

Thank you all for proving that perhaps our communities are some of the last bastions of rational discussion. It's one of the reasons I have enjoyed this place since I first was introduced to it.

 

[DocIllinois]

Personally I like BBC, NPR, Reuturs, AP, and I'll go to NYT for their in depth articles. I'll have to take a look at OAN though.

Minus BBC, NPR, and NYT, the above are among the news sources I also use to inform discussion. Consulting these can minimize the one sided views from things like mere-exposure effect, using loaded words, or appealing to emotion, IME.

Among other sources I use for this reason:

The Economist

The Atlantic Council

Foreign Policy


I also consult this website for identifying sites which publish misleading or outright fake news.

Fake News Codex

 

[SpitfireV]

It's not a left/right thing. It's a people thing. Observing your lot on the internet both "sides" are equally fuckwittery when it comes to rational discussion.

I think it's more to do with confirmation bias and echo chambers than anything else.

 

[Topkick]

It's not a left/right thing. It's a people thing. Observing your lot on the internet both "sides" are equally fuckwittery when it comes to rational discussion.

I think it's more to do with confirmation bias and echo chambers than anything else.

I am probably biased but I think its pretty evident that the left is less likely to engage in reasonable conversation. Did you watch the State of the Union address? IMO, the way the lefties sat scowl faced. rolling their eyes, even when the President mentioned progress which favored their agenda was a pretty good example. That's not to say that conservatives are as passive as they have been. The President has seemingly empowered right- thinking people to fight back and now a debate usually ends in both sides being pissed off.

 

[Frank S.]

It's not a left/right thing. It's a people thing. Observing your lot on the internet both "sides" are equally fuckwittery when it comes to rational discussion.

I think it's more to do with confirmation bias and echo chambers than anything else.

Maybe so, but my Android, who answers all my questions within 0.038 seconds, detected where you were coming from and immediately popped up with 11 links from Australia and one from Tonga proving that anything coming from NZ on the internet is powered by kitten farts.
That's not only exploitative, it is wrong and neither I nor Ricky Gervais will stand for this.

 

[Salt USMC]

I am probably biased but I think its pretty evident that the left is less likely to engage in reasonable conversation. Did you watch the State of the Union address? IMO, the way the lefties sat scowl faced. rolling their eyes, even when the President mentioned progress which favored their agenda was a pretty good example. That's not to say that conservatives are as passive as they have been. The President has seemingly empowered right- thinking people to fight back and now a debate usually ends in both sides being pissed off.

The party that's out of power has typically done the sit-down thing for an opposition President. The only recent one I can think of were some of President GW Bush's early SOTUs when everyone was hopped up on that terrorism sauce.

 

[Grunt]

I read a lot of sites and then formulate my own opinions about what is fake or not. I wish more people did that.

 

[CDG]

I think rational debate is certainly in its death throes. I have had people demand I provide evidence/studies/whatever to back things up, and then outright refuse to read them when I have done so. "I don't need to read that!!!" So what do you do with that?