And so it goes

Personally I've always enjoyed a good argument; especially with people who are more intelligent than I am.  When I was younger, and more energetic, I would sometimes take the opposite side just to stimulate the discussion.  The one thing that has always put me off though is when the argument devolves into name calling or obscenity.  Calling someone out to argue is one thing, but when the invitation is declined hurling obscene names at them serves no purpose. 

That reminds me of a discussion I heard on a radio show a few days ago regarding reverse discrimination.  It was interesting and through the back and forth between the two sides, I actually learned a couple of things.  But then one side called the other a racist.  The discussion ground to a halt then and there.  The rest of the hour was spent with the oh-so boring:  "Yes you are."  No I'm not."   That's the biggest problem with calling someone a name, or using an obscenity at them, it causes the personal interplay to cease.  Everything after that is just a pitch-and-catch of one attack after another.  Not only is it childish, rude and mean, it's also boring. 

Truthfully I used the Bowen/Franz war to read through the archives.  Through the years on this site, there have been quite a lot of topics dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses that are very helpful in exposing that religion for what it is and far more useful, and interesting, than the dreaded "dipfuck".

Argument.......A discussion in which reasons are put foreward in support of, and against a proposition, proposal or case.

Name Calling......A tactic used by a person or persons who have nothing to say, but insist on saying it very loudly.

searcher.

I bet you found some interesting stuff there too, eh? There are some really great topics that get discussed, or new ideas that are brought up, that only get a few reads and maybe a couple of replies, because people are side-tracked by the personality attacks and flame wars. The rating system is one way of indicating whether a thread is worth reading or not, but I've still seen many quality threads ignored because people are more interested in reading the flame wars.

Unfortunately, despite people saying how much they hate the wars, the threads containing the flame wars are often the most read. Flame wars seem to have the appeal of a car wreck - they're ugly, but people still can't resist taking a peek.

A bit like rubber necking at a car wreck, eh?  Actually some of the old threads are kinda interesting.  I'm sorry I missed it the first go round.