Inspired by a thread: Why do you debate?

[MerMom60_94]

I read the debate threads much more than I participate in them.

Some of them get so nasty I can't even do that. I have no problem reading an intelligent, respectful debate that presents all sides. In fact, if a debate is well done I enjoy reading it and may participate. There are actually a couple of Dis'ers who I find to be quite skilled and gracious at presenting opposing view points. I don't like it or see it as productive, though, when people start hurling personal attacks and insults. I don't find that the least bit entertaining or enlightening. So, I avoid those threads.

 

[Planogirl]

I debate occasionally because I care about an issue and I enjoy it because I often learn new things and have even been known to change my mind about some points. I'm not so firmly convinced about things that I'm not willing to think about another viewpoint. Well, except for a few exceptions...

 

[OceanAnnie]

Some of them get so nasty I can't even do that. I have no problem reading an intelligent, respectful debate that presents all sides. In fact, if a debate is well done I enjoy reading it and may participate. There are actually a couple of Dis'ers who I find to be quite skilled and gracious at presenting opposing view points. I don't like it or see it as productive, though, when people start hurling personal attacks and insults. I don't find that the least bit entertaining or enlightening. So, I avoid those threads.

I know what you mean. I try to avoid the nasty threads too. But it's hard sometimes, because there are those that are skilled in debate in those threads too. I think even those that resort to insults often times have really good points. Those good points are then hard to acknowledge because then it seems you are condoning the nastiness. To me, nastiness does diminish a valid point. Absolutely.

I do leave a thread when it reaches a boiling point. Sometimes I may check back from time to time, but I mostly read.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

It's right next to "To inject completely pointless arguments into a previously rational discussion."

You have seen a rational discussion on the internet?

 

[starrzone]

I voted "other" because IRL, I debate (or as one former roommate put it, "play devil's advocate") to stick up for myself. Some people seem to railroad you with their opinions- "It's true because I say so and that's that. I won't accept or consider that there is any other opinion other than my own". Often times, my opinion is different from theirs, and when I state mine it often turns into a discussion. I do know where to stop, though; sometimes, you can tell that you're just not going to get anywhere.

However, I completely avoid debates online because of how unpleasant they can get. As many posters have stated on dozens of threads I've read, it's easier to type things out anonymously to someone sitting on the other side of the country or world than to say the same thing to someone who's standing right across from you. It's VERY difficult, because I am an opinionated person who devours information posted online and in just about any other form of media you can imagine. Sometimes I do know I'm right; the one time I ever "corrected" someone on the DIS, it was to tell them Canada did not have "providences", that they are in fact called "provinces" (I thought I was being helpful and meant NO snark at all, but of course the reader had no way of knowing that). I was told that this was simply a spelling mistake, and that I had spelled a word wrong in my own post, so who was I to correct anyone? I had a smart-aleck answer all ready to type out, but then I stopped and realized that no good would come out of it and that this "debate" would go absolutely nowhere.