Poking the Hornet's Nest the right way
No one truly likes confrontation and that is not a statement that should shock anybody, but the truth is that we simply can't avoid it all the time, and slapping the label "pacifist" on our forehead does not shield us from the responsibility to speak up when we should.
Don't bring a knife to a gun fight
This is to say, if you are engaging on debates with someone and not walking away from the situation asking new questions, you have utterly and undeniably wasted your time. Of course this does not necessarily mean you have to switch over to the other side of the argument, or that you are a traitor to your own cause, but what it does mean is that you are actively seeking for new lenses with which to understand a problem and all of it's nuances.
But... I'm a small fish
Ideas don't need to come from a form of authority to be valid, they should be able to stand on their own two feet. If an idea requires titles and degrees behind it to be even considered, this might say everything you need to know about the substance of said idea.
As we all know in the world of online virtual interactions debates and arguments are a common occurrence, but the efficiency of engagement combined with a laughable inability of its participants to stick to the issues has made them more circus acts than mental jousts.
Regardless of your vested power on this platform you have a voice, you have a keyboard and you have a brain. If you have something to add, something of value, a new question to present or an angle no one has explored its probably your ethical obligation to participate.
What about the idiots?
Aside from the fact that using ad hominen arguments have never solved a single issue, it's also quite naive to believe that bad ideas will ever cease to exist, as if there is a way to truly eliminate them permanently. Ideas simply get replaced by improved versions, they evolve through the processes of disagreement and that is exactly what I'm talking about.
A good friend asked me a couple of days ago to explain the reason why I would even entertain arguing with someone with extreme ideologies. The problem I find with this type of thinking is that it ignores the fact that none-engagement does not make mental aberrations go away. We tend to be so afraid of conflict that terrible ideas have grown into sociological monsters and it takes but a glance into a few religions to understand what I mean by this.
The ideological Buffet was shutdown by our very nature
We need to however learn to unlearn these lies about arguing. Unlearn that conflict should be avoided at any cost unless the engagement of the most brutal kind is required. What I find pretty interesting about our willing avoidance of historic evidence is that we tend to stand in shock after the fact and pretend we had no idea what happened and how we got here.
We need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable
Confirmation Bias has never moved any needles in the right direction and as much as it can be emotionally excruciating to listen to someone who we believe is painfully wrong. Allowing ourselves to reconsider our own positions and be better listeners will only result in personal growth and development.
Toxicity cannot be completely avoided and maybe this is a call to everyone with good ideas to feel empowered to speak up regardless of your wallet size. It might take many of us to find a solution, but it takes none of us to head towards failure.
The feature film, One Less God, that I’m one of the leading actors in that is being released in cinemas this year begins with a profound quote:
“If our children are dying for the sake of our beliefs, isn’t it time our beliefs began dying for the sake of our children.”
Too often we debate or argue without paying mind to the consequences or even our purpose or what we want for an outcome.
When ‘consciously’ entering into debate, we really should (on both sides) know what our goal is, lest it descend into a frustrating emotional butting of heads, where both feel depleted and defeated (or coming across as just supercilious), which it all too often does, especially as it does online. Why? Because it is devoid of body language and tone of voice, which is what over 80% of what we communicate comes from and why so much of what we desperately try to convey in online debates gets massively misconstrued.
Steemit offsets a portion of that problem by discouraging destructive negativity, but not all of it.
Discord doesn’t offset it. In fact, I think it magnifies the problem.
I love a good joust, but I’ve found, more often than not, that rarely are online debates actually good (productive) jousts. Yet I still too often find myself in the midst of them.
Over the years I’ve come to identify closely with a profound spiritual wisdom, “do you wish to be right or do you wish to be happy?”
That is the true metaphorical ‘red pill.’
If we each hold that question close at heart when we next enter into debate, I’m certain that we will all be winners, in that we might actually expand our own knowledge and wisdom, rather than be shouting in an echo chamber or yelling our perspective at the wind wondering why less and less people are close by.
Another fantastically though provoking and engaging article, my friend @meno.
Thanks again, mate.
👍🏽🙏🏽
By the way, @meno, remind me to tell you my hornet nest story sometime.
I might bug you later for this story! ha!!!
I recently struggled with the same qualms on whether to speak my mind about something pertinent to this platform. I was considering all the possible outcomes for sharing said voice, in light of the fact that I'm a small plankton on the platform... I decided to not let it stop me.
The 'small fish in a big pond' mindset is the same fear that stops us from expressing ourselves in the real world. It is also the source of much suffering, because it creates the disconnect between the self and all. That same disconnect stops us from seeing the bigger picture. Which is a precursor to connecting the dots that will then allow us to learn from experience.
This is a good thread but tough to comment on a bit for me at least. I feel like the teensy fly on the surface of the pond that could get eaten by a minnow lol. The points in the post ring true though and should help a lot of people. I could add that philosophy has always been a blood sport, I'd compare it to Overwatch, a popular modern mental duel where the last man standing wins, figuratively speaking. To enter the arena is to compete, if you are going after the champ, you better be ready for the fight with an arsenal to match your opponent.
The only winners in battles of minds are those that come out of the ring with more knowledge than before. The only defeat is made by those that remain intransigent, even if they appear to have won that particular joust.
As right as rain.
That's the level of poetic expression I hope to achieve one day. A good point expressed eloquently goes further than one any troll could grunt out from under his bridge yes?
Any day of the week.
I guess you are not necessarily wrong with that observation.... but it might be more accurate to say you people who enter the arena should just make sure they have sound arguments (weapons) and don't get caught arguing from ignorance (bluffing).
But I get your analogy.
It came out a bit hyperbolic, I'm new to these discussions and it will surly show. I agree that how you put it sounds better. Learning the tools (less violent analogy yes?) of the argument are very key. I'd say some that are on the positive side are to point to scientific research results or to use historical rebuttals and the bluffs or negatives are straw man arguments and ad homonym attacks but the list goes on. This is the discussion I've been looking for and I really appreciate your time and engagement, please let me know if I'm on the right track with it.
I believe you to be for sure.
Very well said @meno. Great article of pure actuality indeed. Doings and events happening over here in our 'Social Network' and everywhere else out there all the time.
Oh yes! definitely we must feel very comfortable wearing our major questioner's outfit if we really want to squeeze the most remote drops of truth and best behaviors about everything and all.
Undoubtedly, we have to learn to feel ourselves truly comfortable wrapped within our top misfit attire and take a long walk around. Actually giving a royal rat ass to what people can think or say beforehand about us while they feel unable or unwilling to approach us first to establish logical & reasonable viewpoints to counteract our chosen acts and way of thinking.
¡Live and let live! is what they usually say. But everyone knows this is just a plain big lie which everyone and their dogs constantly repeat this 'void mantra' like mindless parrots endlessly without know better. }:)
Btw, ¿Do you have your 'questioner's outfit' already washed, ironed & ready to use? ¡I'm surely wearing mine from long time ago! Hehehe };)
Cheers!!!
I see what you did there... hahaha thank you for reading... Btw I appreciate your handle more than you might imagine, I have some Venezuelan friends and I'm a little versed with some of their colloquialism.
I spoke up, and it cost me $15+ because bernie dissagreed..
I was lucky, the guy that pissed bernie off when from rep 58 to rep -3 overnight...
checkout @doodlebears post and see the comments
whats a poor minnow to do? have free expression,pretend we are not being censored,our post are not hidden,and we deserve to loose any $ we invest in bib bots.
That is what bernie says and all the whales/witnesses allow.
I admit I kick/kill hornet nest. I shoot the fox in the hen house,and the wolf that comes after my livestock..unfortunately I can't afford a gun or ammo here and there seams to be no posse to help...
I am stubborn and plan on staying awhile longer... but I understand why the turn over is so high on this platform.
I'm not convinced Bernie is someone who can't be reasoned with. Honestly, if anything he is a bag holder of steem and everything he does or does not do has a direct effect on his economical health. I was not aware of his beef with doodlebear.. but what I did just notice is that doodlebear started to threaten people who used Bernie's services...
Even if doodlebear had a case to make, he basically shot himself in the foot there. Don't get me wrong it's not nice whats happening but he did not engage this argument the right way and Bernie does hold the gun.
my point exactly!
Doodlebear is a minnow just like us, he was not making up BS ,plagerizing or anything...
He was trying to solve a real problem(?) ... but everyone will claim he has not been censored or hurt...and very few people will have the guts/morral fortitude to stand up to the bullie! not even the whale witnesses that could do something...
Profits are more important than truth or quality post. The platform proves this to be true...look at trending page.
;-)
Namaste and TY!
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hmmm ...very interesting :D
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