(10-16-2020, 11:16 PM)Moonmagic Wrote: Can I just say, I really enjoy the back and forth between you two @"Antisthenes" and @"Ninurta". This is a perfect example of how two intelligent adults who disagree on some things should communicate.
Rare to see this nowadays.
I think it's just possible the two of us could have a beer summit without anyone trying to whack the other with an empty beer bottle. She's never made fun of my bald spot, my crossed eyes, or my crooked toes, so I see no need for me to get nasty at her, either!
Political differences of opinion, like religious ones, are a subject for discussion, not fisticuffs... she'd probably beat me in a wrestlin' match anyhow, delicate flower that I am, so I pride myself on my ability not to provoke one!
The long and the short of it is that I think people can disagree without being disagreeable. The secret to it is really no secret at all - if you have to get nasty or engage in a personal attack, you lose, because you've lost whatever bit of high ground you might have otherwise held. Being forced to go low is being led around by your nose...
If more folks understood that, as @"Antisthenes" does, then discourse would be a lot more civilized, and Facebook would either have to get with the times or fold up shop.
Politics might even get civil again if that were to occur!
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’