I haven't. How is it that all "sides" come to think the other is being illogical, fallacious, stupid, etc? How come no consensus is ever reached, how come the original issue is forgotten after just a few posts, in favour of attacks on other's credibility and distractions from previous mistakes?

Does this happen in other media or just online? Forums are a very particular kind of interface between people and so maybe its just there. But I suspect real-life debates are just as bad, just look at most political debates and things.

Is, as I suspect, productive human discussion completely impossible?

Yes. Please refrain from posting.

I know, its a bit of a ..whatver you call it. We're completely isolated though. No current form of communication seems to go any way to actually getting the right ideas accross to people. You get people between whom communication works well and those between whom it simply can not ever occur, because they're just on such tracks and think it such different ways

Its because most people are not guided by rational thought but rather by emotions and operate under the erroneous assumption that wanting something to be a certain way is the same as it actually being that way. Most people also lack the ability and/or patience to understand complex issues and so make decisions using highly abridged data.

To wit, you say the sky is red and I show you data that proves that the light coming from the sky is at or about 475nm but you choose to continue to believe it is red because this pleases you and you have no idea what a nanometer is anyway. We will never reach consensus on the color of the sky.

I've been convinced of several things in online debates. But then again, I'm not a fucking retard like most people on the internet.

I'd love to have the opportunity to be. I should spend less time on dipshit forums and more on sensible ones. But I am obliged to acknowledge that all that means is "less time on forums where people think differently to me and more on ones where people think similarly to me"... that's all it means really, of course

Yes, I have seen some debates proceed quite well with only minor diversions into irrelevance or stupidity.

And I have no comment as to whether your argument would have been welcomed in the Third Reich.

mm, yea. What is it, "you can tell a dog its a dog but it will just sit and bark at you" ?

Sadly I am again obliged to acknowledge that also "you can bark at a human as much you like, but it will just stand there and talk to you"



What's the solution? Physical force, from either the humans or the dogs, I suppose.

I present the following, and QED:

The latest legal gear thread at bbing.com is perfect testament to this

Which ones that TK....? Not ventured on there for a while...

I've had a number of good philosophical debates on the internet, but more often than not someone misreads or misquotes you, and ends up starting a slagging match. Sadly.

Well it's not really a debate...just an internet fight/spat revolving around LG sciences' latest news.

Debates on here seem to go better than they do on other forums, IMHO... feel free to debate me on this.

Probably more "civilized."

But I am not sure if we end up communicating our thoughts any better.