Sir Ryan Bemrose on Nostr: I find that having a rational discussion on an open forum has become extremely ...

I find that having a rational discussion on an open forum has become extremely difficult.

Thanks to multiple decades of complete and utter failure in the public school system, far too many of today's "adults" can't even recognize a rational argument, let alone construct one. They just lash out with whatever emotional words their feeeeelings emit in the moment, with the conviction of the ignorant and faithful.

Hypocrisy is not a concept to these people. Truth has no meaning. Their words are not constructed to reach an understanding, nor even to sway anyone's opinion. To the kind of person I speak of, the only goal of the "argument" is to fulfill and reinforce one's internal smugness, and ideally to emotionally harm one's opponent in the process.

It is these kind of people who wade into online public discussions. That they have nothing to say matters not; they are here only to seek attention. Their childish outbursts lower the tone of the conversation and send the more rational commenters away.

In the end, the only people left commenting on an open forum are smug irrational children, making it impossible to continue in a rational vein.

This is why I don't participate in twitter or reddit anymore.