Why do you think so many discussions on A2K end up...

Thanks everyone for your comments and observations here.

Plenty of validity to many of the observations…and I appreciate all of them.

The world is a troubled place right now…and America in particular seems to have societal divisions that seem irreconcilable. Because of that, there is an never-ending downward spiral leading to more and greater divisions…and less and less possible reconciliation.

Our congress here in America is barely able to function because of those divisions…and adherents of the different sides seem, at times, almost to loathe the adherents of the other side. That doesn’t make for a very happy or efficient world.

I guess what I was saying in my OP (albeit rather clumsily)…let’s all cool it a bit. Rather than allow differences of opinions to so easily degenerate into variations of “you are stupid” or “you are an asshole”…let’s all see if we, in this rather small world, can be above that sort of thing.

Maybe I am just looking for hope in what seems at times to be an extremely bleak world; maybe I just want to think that people can rise above the pettiness that seems to permeate so much of human interaction…and get along; maybe if I see it happen here, I can be a bit more optimistic that it can happen in places like the United States Congress; the Middle East; the United Nations…and the like.

Not trying to be grandiose here, but if this small community cannot conduct itself better...if we cannot each afford the others more respect...what possible hope is there for achieving any of those ends in larger entities.

Just a thought!

nobody engages in discussions to have their opinions fucked with. Everyone gravitates toward folks who reinforce their own views. Sad Innit?

ALL EXCEPT ME AN YOU. (AND Im not so sure about you)

Speaking only for myself, I sometimes do the same stuff that I abhor in others, but I tend not to do that for hundreds of following posts.
The repetition is in itself deadly.

I am generally in a livid state re people who take over threads and go on for myriad pages, barking all the while they have the right. It's true, they do.

It's a killer.

I am surely not anti digression, digression is my way of thinking, but thread takeover is rude plus.

Osso hit on why I don't engage certain posters here. Thousands of posts they make to shout down the opposition while making a single point (usually not) endlessly.

Awww... Frank you old softy
What a lovely thread you started here
Out of respect for Osso I won't try to take it over.
I would like to go in record as saying that despite some hostility as a newish member, I have been met with more kindness than animus.
I don't think you have much reason to be pessimistic about the community, I think we are all capable of rising above circumstance regardless.
I don't want everyone to agree with me, I'm here to be challenged. I don't want some "yes"-club, but I also don't have much desire for a "fuckyou"-club. If someone wants a pissing match, I don't see much shame in choosing the anti-public-urination platform, and conceding the point.
Also, of course, in conclusion, and concordantly ... my cock is bigger than your cock (lets not fight about it though, and I refuse to present any evidence to support my assertion)!

I agree with everything you said, Matt (except the part about your having a bigger cock than mine .) If someone is trying to start a stupid fight and I decide to accommodate him/her by accepting the challenge, then I'm a dumb fish rising readily to the bait.

you're raising chickens?

Is anyone else drunk on irony from this thread? The other alternative is extreme cynicism, which I highly don't commend as any real hope. Eventually, reality overwhelms and crushes all our defenses against its onrush, and this itself is the great irony, in my opinion - that to live successfully, reality must be treated with great irony and with great seriousness. This is beautiful in itself and I appreciate those avatars being avatars of irony; it gives a real opportunity for them to oscillate between these states and provide a lens through which others can perceive the incremental changes of all their conditioned forms.

Layers, mostly.

Careful there Matt, he doesn't like his name to be abbreviated

less than when someone calls her a dude?

I doubt it...

Oops Rock, I had assumed it was a male since they're typically more feisty

I'm fine with Osso.

It's true that I find your turning people's usernames into three letter words weirdly grating, but that's your thing.

I do not understand what point you are trying to make here!

Mr. Apisa, by comparing and trying to connect the picture of society at large with trolls and flamers on the internet. Well, I don't know if you are trolling or just being plain ludicrous, but you seem to have attracted quite a gathering and their explanations and justifications on such a silly premise. How can something incongruous with internet forums and reality be taken so literal with the society at large? Roberta and a few others saw through your inaccurate notion of finding a parallelism. The vacuous comments on humanistic correctness has turned some people's mind into an inane waste land, attested by their ludicrous explanations. I didn't figure your good mind to fall to such fatuous forces and lead people thinking in that direction.

@Anybody following this thread:

If you can help me understand what Ice Demon is getting at here, I'd appreciate your help.

Wouldn't touch it with a stick.

Your picture of society at large, or larger identity identified is a gross generalization with premise that it is generally because of "differences of opinions to so easily degenerate into variations of..."
And believing social problems can be solved is a myth. There isn't a total societal consensus in any society about what exactly constitutes social problems and its solution. The irony is that some people who drank your kool-aid seems to think otherwise, for now. In reality they may have a notion that social problems are highly complex and definitions of problems change with more understanding.

How can you when I'm using your shtick to gauge measuring depth of various bodies of murky pits here in this thread.

shtick - love it