Kevin Lewis again

Butts, take the personal attack shit to the Sink where it belongs.

I suppose the difference is that one side states, then repeats, then screams, things that are patently untrue--demonstrable falsehoods--like "Trump won the election." At that juncture, it's not about competing ideologies. It's about one side's willingness to tout bald-faced lies.

So I think that the reason these discussions devolve so quickly to attacks and insults is that it's impossible to defend outright lies, so when those lies are challenged, the liars' only recourse is to personally attack whoever is making that challenge. Now, I know both sides accuse each other of lying. But only one side consistently endorses and promulgates foolish garbage like "widespread election fraud." And only one side has killed hundreds of thousands of people by impeding efforts to control the pandemic, spreading lies like "The vaccines could kill you" and "Wearing a mask is useless."

So how can there be civil discourse when two sides fundamentally disagree about what the truth is?

(Let's move this discussion to the Sink if you wish to continue it. There, our resident conservatives can unleash their full fury at me.)

So.  My background has been in academics and in healthcare (although I recently retired) but I've had an interest in history for a while.  I've never paid attention to politics at all (figured that it would take too much of my time and would just piss me off) until the last few years when it became more frightening.  A lot (but not all) of that was the downplaying of the pandemic; all physicians are horrified by that.  So I spent time trying to convince people of the importance of precautions and of vaccination, and made very, very little progress (which was certainly better than no progress).  The problem fundamentally comes down to belief vs. fact, and I think that crops up a lot in history and speaks for human nature.  It's an unpleasant part of the world, and something that demagogues have taken advantage of (there's a reason why every dictator begins by purging the universities, and there has even been a recent President who spoke about how he loves the uneducated).  There's the Dunning-Kruger effect, which basically addresses how people can be too unaware to know that they're unaware.

I can see how I could easily get drawn into such things and spend a lot more time and energy than I want to, to try to change things that are probably unchangeable.  Staying calm and logical is probably necessary but certainly not sufficient (as witnessed by the thread that you and I are both following about betting progressions).  I do know that getting nasty or rude will only make it easier for people to discount what you're saying (and that guy from the betting progression thread is starting to get a little nasty).  It feels good in some ways to try to sway opinion, but I don't think I want to spend a lot of my time doing it, it's so low-yield and will likely take too much of my time and just piss me off.

Not because black people are going away (sorry), but because you'll be dead.

Once again kevin is wishing a poster will die.  How long will you guys allow this type of behavior?

Tom, I didn't say I wished for you to die. Please stop lying.

Another disturbing post from Kevin Lewis that violates the posting rules of the forum.  Calling on posters to commit suicide & hoping people die should be grounds for termination.

I suggest you commit suicide rather than endure the pain. But if you decide to stick around, that's fine--you'll all be dead soon.

You are what you are. I loathe you and your kind--and so does the world. You're dying out.

I truly feel that all you conservitards would be much happier if you were dead--you're all so angry.

But speaking of violating the rules, Tom--personal attacks are against the rules, especially outside the Sink.

Kevin you are the one with so much anger, I'm very happy despite democrats screwing so many things up

Yet, Hilbert, you vent your anger in the Sink on a daily basis.

I don't know how using your own words is a personal attack on you