ubertuber

Opie,

I believe it is important to distinguish between debate and discussion. There are some people here that don't want to debate - they want to discuss. The difference lies in that they do not wish to convince others. It is about illuminating differences of opinion rather than eliminating them.

I would like to say (referring to a post you made early in this thread) that not all dissent raises the level of debate, and most debate actually lowers the level of discourse, particularly with intensely personalized topics such as current politics. This is related to the paragraph above - an invitation to dialogue is not the same as an invitation to debate. I also would like to say that this in no way means that dissent and debate are bad things. It is just that occasionally they are square pegs which can't be forced into the round holes of discussion. There is a time for everything, but in a thread that Art starts, you can bet that round pegs are more appropriate than square ones.

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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam