Side discussion about General Topics forum

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, let's get this out there. In this forum, there is a General Topics section where we all participate in discussion of current events. A man has his head hacked off, yeah, there are going to be strong feelings. We're looking at another war with Islamic extremists. Who's not feeling tense and frustrated, angry. Oh? You are? Great, them have a little compassion for the rest of us.

No one wants to let the forum fill up with racists and hate-mongers. I don't think it is in danger of becoming so. When we do get the occaisonal racist nutter here, we let him expand on his views until he has clearly crossed the line. Then we ease him out.

I am not pointing a finger at any one individual, and I do not exempt myself from the situation, but I need to use the Steven Sotloff thread as an example.

In post 297 Skybird explains at length why he thinks Islam is bound to be an extremist doctrine, by its own rules and writings. It appears to me Sky does not necessarily hate all Muslims, but he thinks that all Muslims should be tarred by the same brush. Basically, he's saying that Islam is extremist.

In post 298 BossMark says something about deporting relatives of yahoos who have gone to join the ISIS cause. It's obvious this horrific crime has upset him, and why not? It upset me, it's pretty normal to have this reaction, and appropriate.

In 299 Tarjak rather patiently explains that won't work, or cannot be done ethically. The important thing is, he explains his reasoning.

in 300 Tarjak states to Sky:

It is comments like these that can only be likened to the propaganda used by hate groups to attract impressionable people to their cause. Yet again your wall of text completely misses the point.

This simply makes it appear that you are closer to being the thing you hate and spend so much time railing against.

Well, that was rather elegant and to the point. If you think someone is a bigot, that's the way to respond.


In summary: use your logic to win your point, don't be lazy and try to shut the other person down by reaching into your toolbox and throwing out the label "bigot", "sheep", etc. You can use the ignore feature if you think your are dealing with a bigot, utopian, or garden variety knucklehead.

Remember: just because someone does not see things as you do does not make them wrong. Unless it happens that you woke up this morning and discovered you are God.

Also, know when to stop. I've had my share of heated discussions here, and when I felt I was repeating myself, I stopped and moved on without trying to WIN!! or get in the last word. Don't let your passion turn you into a zealot.

Finally, I am not infallible or an uninterested observer here, but I offer this post as a reminder that we need to work a little harder to keep the discussion of difficult topics civil.