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

……. usernames into three letter words weirdly grating……..

…...form an opinion of a user…...colors everything we see posted from them.

…...perfectly polite posts get thumbed down

…….once we have someone pigeon-holed, we don't know how to respond ….even if ……. polite debate.

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5268331)
Don't worry about it Frank. If you don't get it by now, there is nothing wrong with that.

I've made my point.

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.

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.

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.

but what has the link to do with any of this?

Just trying to understand what I've said that this poster disagrees with.

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Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5268488)
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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.

Fallacy of composition. What matters if a smaller community conducts itself better or not? It won't ever mean that there is a hope for achieving any of those ends in larger entities.

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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.

You think this is something that just started recently?

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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.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Possibly a fallacy of composition if I were offering it as a proof or support of a proof. I am not…and I think most readers understood that. It is an entreaty…saying essentially if a small group of people with lots of common ground are not able to discuss things in a more civil way…perhaps that explains why larger, more complex entities cannot do so. So it would not hurt if we were to strive to show that we can do it….and by so doing, perhaps indicate a more optimistic possibility for it being done more universally.

Neither the former nor the latter is something that started recently…and your phrasing was ambiguous as to which you referred. In any case, did I suggest it is something new? And even if I were naive enough to think it new, how would that impact on my general thesis?

So…in total you are suggesting that there was something wrong with me comparing a small community with a much larger one…and suggesting a relationship!

So…in total you are suggesting that there was something wrong with me comparing a small community with a much larger one…and suggesting a relationship!

Definitely, it's such a gross generalization that it's not worth comparisons, especially if this small community is a forum where anonymity is assured.

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.