On Apr 20, 2015, Magnus Eisengrim wrote:
Let's talk about bottoms.

On Apr 20, 2015, stoneunhinged wrote:

Unfriendliness concerns me. Not personally, but as a thinker. When I put on my political philosophy hat, I start to get a wee bit concerned about how unfriendly debate here has become, because I wonder if it reflects an unfriendliness of debate in America. Since I haven't lived there for twenty years, I worry that America has changed, that it has gotten grumpy and hostile and unfriendly toward a diversity of opinion and experience and ideas.

But maybe it's just the Café.

On Apr 20, 2015, imgic wrote:
When I was a kids...we had dial up modems. We had to wait for squeaky tones so we could get onto the World Wide Internet Web. Then all we had was UserNet forums...none of this fancy Youbook and Facetube that you youngsters have today. And we were civil to one another...we were polite. We spoke of only things that had socially redeeming values. We didn't waste time posting pictures of our last bowl of cereal...

Those were the days...

On Apr 20, 2015, kambiz wrote:
You guys clearly haven't been attacked by the Iranian kissing mothers on the way to school.

Kam

On Apr 21, 2015, Bob1Dog wrote:

Quote:

On Apr 20, 2015, kambiz wrote:
You guys clearly haven't been attacked by the Iranian kissing mothers on the way to school.

Kam

No, but my wife and I were stuck (read that "trapped") on a Pan Am "Round the World" flight in the summer of 1979 on a tarmac at whatever the dammed name of the airport was called in Teheran back then, for two hours with no air conditioning and armed soldiers surrounding the plane while more armed soldiers boarded the plane. Seeking what? I have no idea but passengers were a little shaky, including yours truly. The American Embassy hostage crisis began four months later. Give me a kissing Iranian mother any time.

On Apr 20, 2015, rockwall wrote:
Oh Yeah? You had it easy! I had to walk barefoot to school on unpaved roads littered with broken bottles covered in snow so that you couldn't spot them!

On Apr 20, 2015, LobowolfXXX wrote:

Quote:

On Apr 20, 2015, landmark wrote:

Quote:

On Apr 20, 2015, stoneunhinged wrote:
...most:

religion and politics.

Homosexuality, guns, evolution, the Bible, liberalism and conservatism, bla bla bla.

I guess it's what most people want to talk about here. But frankly, I'm tired of it.

Back when I got addicted to the "Not very magical" forum, we used to have a lot of fun. That was years ago. There were legendary threads: Mike Doogan, the Frenches, the Eurovision song that we wrote together. And yes, other topics continually pop up. But a thread like, say, Gone With the Wind might have struck a chord and resulted in ten pages of fun and gags and double entendres as good-spirited nonsense. Mostly, it was friendly. These days a thread like that might get half a dozen posts.

But should someone decide to shoot up a school today, we'll go crazy until the mods delete the thread. We'll blame or defend guns, religion, the quality of schooling in America, Obamacare, whatever. It'll go to as many pages as the mods allow.

In some ways I like it. I like that America is a vibrant place with enthusiastic, loud, penetrating discussion. But it ALWAYS reveals unfriendliness.

Unfriendliness concerns me. Not personally, but as a thinker. When I put on my political philosophy hat, I start to get a wee bit concerned about how unfriendly debate here has become, because I wonder if it reflects an unfriendliness of debate in America. Since I haven't lived there for twenty years, I worry that America has changed, that it has gotten grumpy and hostile and unfriendly toward a diversity of opinion and experience and ideas.

But maybe it's just the Café.

No, it's America, Jeff.
As the inequality grows, the polarization grows.

Historically, I think we've been at least as polarized in the past as we are now.