maximus Loc: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Good morning all. I would like to suggest something for both sides here on OPP. I would like to see name calling stop. Just stop doing it. It doesn't help any debate and it only brings emotion into what could be a good debate.
I have found that when called a name, just ignoring it goes a long was, because I hardly ever get called a name anymore. by the same token, I don't call anybody names.
OPP would be a more dignified place to present our beliefs and debate our differences if we do just this one thing.
What will we ever change by being on OPP anyway? Nothing.

debeda

Good thoughts, maximus

bylm1-Bernie

I agree, Max, but I don't know how far you're going to get with that. Some, who don't have a really good argument, feel that stupid cartoons and name-calling is the only answer. I sort of take it with a grain of salt and move on. Nice thought though.

Kevyn

When I started following here a couple years ago I had hoped for nuanced policy discussions, sadly what I found was a chat room populated primarily by far right nut jobs, white nationalists, Klansmen, neo Nazis, Birchers and snake handling Bible thumpers. They seemed to have one thing in common a desire to wallow in an echo chamber of their own hate and ignorance. I decided to check in now and again and slap them across the face with truth and reality. This upsetting of their ideologically rickety apple cart caused them great consternation and rage and instead of responding rationally they hurled childish insult. As a result I will now return the favor.

SilentGeneration Loc: Michigan

Liberty Tree

Does that include calling the President names?

Retired builder

How about not responding to the ignorance and anger. The best way to silence the hate is to not participate.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Agreed...

vernon

You really woulden't know truth or reality if you met them in the road. And as far as not calling names
that is all you have done from your first day.

CarryOn

Lonewolf

woodguru

I personally think that something worth saying is highly invalidated by adding personally oriented insults, think not of the person being responded to who is worth checking, but a hundred other people who will hear your response. Might as well give a response the dignity and credibility it deserves. Let the other person be the one to negate their message. Believe it or not those who respond without personal attacks are heard by others who might be on "the other side" or in the middle trying to absorb reality. They might disagree with most of what a person says, but occasionally common views are heard.

Just my 2 cents

woodguru

No...that's just fair game...

Anybody being honest would admit that if you had a relative with Trump's personality "quirks" they would be the butt of family jokes. The guy is a useless excuse for a human being

Rose42

You're smarter than that.

maximus Loc: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Kevyn, this is exactly what I'm talking about. In this paragraph, I counted 13 derogatory names and states of being. This is the way "I" would like to see a debate go;

Kevyn,
When I read your statement, I see that your words seem to mean...you hoped for everybody believing the same as you. As OPP is a forum, meaning that people of differing beliefs can come together and present their beliefs and engage in a spirited debate, you, no insult intended, seem to have chosen to call those of other beliefs and opinions names and to post questionable pictures( I admit my own guilt...iI posted 3 pictures the other day in response to you posting several). My response was NOT the adult intelligent way to approach a forum. In fact, it destroys the whole atmosphere of a forum and turns it into a mudslinging contest. If you remember the Three Stooges where at the end of the short, they got into food fights, then that is what OPP is starting to look like. I will take the first step right now;
I vow to never call anybody a name or throw insults at them, OR post any more questionable photos and cartoons. Whether you do this or not, I will. Who ever started it, when we call names and throw insults, we turn from adults acting reasonably into children who have not learned the niceties of polite society.
If only a few of us (both sides)stick together and when someone calls out a name, we ask them to please refrain, and then just let it go.
So, Kevyn, will you make the same vow?

OK...now this being a debate, that my opinion and now it is Keyvns turn to respond with his opinion. To me, this is not hard to do.