My take on the 'chasing people off' stuff - is that people just aren't used to having defend positions anymore because most sites just algorithmically push you into bubbles where everyone agrees with you OR to views that are completely off-putting you to incite you into rage.
So when people challenge opinions now - its a combination of people challenging getting overly aggressive in their language and then people being challenged being overly sensitive - which is probably the norm for internet debates going back to the beginning of internet time. But since this site doesn't have an algorithm - you're stuck debating PepsiFree or Cliff or whoever. You can't just banish them from your feed like you can on newer sites.
Its uncomfortable to be challenged when you just go back to your bubble and avoid all of that.
Eliminating the personal shots would probably help - but I do find having some emotion in a discussing makes it more interesting than the so-called intellectual discussions where its just a bunch of navel gazing people trying to sound smarter than the next guy.
|