Just wondering.....

[Oldjohnw]

.....is there any topic, about anything - factual, opinion, political, lights, tyres, helmets, bells, ebikes, cars, bank holidays - which doesn't move on to what diplomats call 'a frank exchange of views' within a page or two?

[Spinners]

I have to take issue with you there...

[Oldjohnw]

I have to take issue with you there...

Evidence, please.

[Cugel]

.....is there any topic, about anything - factual, opinion, political, lights, tyres, helmets, bells, ebikes, cars, bank holidays - which doesn't move on to what diplomats call 'a frank exchange of views' within a page or two?

One hopes not!

Is there anything more sickeningly unctious than a-one o' them mutual admiration clubs wherein smug fellows boast constantly to each other about how they are the right-thinking sort who may treat "the others" as somehow beneath contempt? Is there a more tiresome fellow than he who will have verbal or other kinds of intercourse only with "like-minded people" or those deemed "one of us"? These Thatcher-modes are both laughable and highly dangerous to a civilised society! Oh yes they are!

"A frank exchange of views" is a great privilege and should never be give-up. The trick is to have these exchanges without getting so "frank" that one feels a compulsion to escalate them to a desire to eradicate "the others" with extreme frankness. Many seem to lack the appropriate governor on their notion-boiler. Some have opened their bile-tap to allow a constant dribble or even a gush.

Cugel

[Mike Sales]

<SNIP>

I quite agree.
It is also useful to read the views of others, this can progress your own.
It is good to have to organise your ideas and express them coherently to withstand the criticism of those who don't agree, and even attempt to persuade them that you do have something worth saying.
You may also yourself learn just why others hold views you don't like, and learn to nevertheless respect them.

[al_yrpal]

In which order to apply cream and jam to your scone for a cream tea. Tis a constant point of contention down ere in Devon....

Al

[Pastychomper]

I have a theory that active forums tend to attract a particular species of shark, which live off the discarded remnants of ideas left behind by troll attacks. As scavengers, the sharks are rarely dangerous but they are big enough to get in the way, forcing threads to twist and turn as they grow.

A very long thread might find itself entirely surrounded by sharks, at which point the only way it can grow further is to jump over one of them. Sadly, once a thread has jumped the shark it never really recovers.

[Oldjohnw]

Life would be so much simpler if everyone agreed with me.

But so much more dull.

[fausto copy]

I couldn't agree more!

fausto the dull.

[Audax67]

In which order to apply cream and jam to your scone for a cream tea. Tis a constant point of contention down ere in Devon....

Al

Need to interview the scones about that.

Crikey, it's >50 years since I was in Devon.

[Oldjohnw]

.....is there any topic, about anything - factual, opinion, political, lights, tyres, helmets, bells, ebikes, cars, bank holidays - which doesn't move on to what diplomats call 'a frank exchange of views' within a page or two?

I profoundly disagree with myself. I find your comment offensive.

[Tangled Metal]

<SNIP>

I quite agree.
It is also useful to read the views of others, this can progress your own.
It is good to have to organise your ideas and express them coherently to withstand the criticism of those who don't agree, and even attempt to persuade them that you do have something worth saying.
You may also yourself learn just why others hold views you don't like, and learn to nevertheless respect them.

I can't believe you gave Cugel the snip! How rude!

[Mike Sales]

<SNIP>

I quite agree.
It is also useful to read the views of others, this can progress your own.
It is good to have to organise your ideas and express them coherently to withstand the criticism of those who don't agree, and even attempt to persuade them that you do have something worth saying.
You may also yourself learn just why others hold views you don't like, and learn to nevertheless respect them.

I can't believe you gave Cugel the snip! How rude!

I don't think I did, might be a slip of the finger.

[Cugel]

Life would be so much simpler if everyone agreed with me.

But so much more dull.

My idea of hell is a world full of only Cugels, all of them just like me!

The question is, though (time for an interesting thought experiment) would all these Cugels agree with each other over every jot and scribble? Or would the memetic evolutions in their identical brainboxes actually begin to exude differences of opinion, notion, idea and so forth, as the random quantum fizzing fizzed in their heads? Would the world be the ultimate mutual admiration society or full of variant-Cugel, conducting a war of all against all?

Cugel, happy to remain singular.

[Cugel]

In which order to apply cream and jam to your scone for a cream tea. Tis a constant point of contention down ere in Devon....

Al

Whatever the correct answer, I feel you will get it wrong.

Even if it's right, I shall oppose it toof & scratcher!!

Cugel