Intellectual Interaction
I haven't had a real intellectual, confrontational, educational conversation(al) with anyone in years. I think it's a combination of factors. One being that I'm older now and so the amount time I spend with people I know has only decreased. I don't interact with people nearly as much as I would when I was in university. At that time, I could spend hours just blathering on with my friends about whatever world event/political candidate/etc was topical. I had all the time in the world to 'debate' my friends. Now, I want to enjoy the limited time I spend with them, so any point of contention gets sidelined.
Another factor is what I see happen to people who disagree. Maybe it was always this way and in my youth, I just never understood, but it seems that things are only ever escalating when it comes to debates. It's no longer two people with different views, now it's two people arguing that the other person wants to kill them. Hell, we even saw Charlie Kirk be brutally executed while debating. So what kind of conclusion are we supposed to draw from that? Seriously, I want you to think of a major policy debate that's going on right now where at least one side isn't arguing that the other side is intentionally trying to destroy innocent lives... (Abortion, immigration enforcement, Trans rights, etc). I'll leave the debate around a WAR itself out of this.
And where it seemingly isn't a matter of life and death, the next best thing is a matter of 'tolerance' vs 'hate'. No one just disagrees with something for reasons (be they legitimate or poorly researched). No. Their opponent disagrees because they have HATRED in their heart. Oppose abortion? You HATE women. Support enforcement of federal immigration laws? You HATE people of colour. Support healthcare reform? You HATE capitalism. Oppose HATE speech? You HATE free speech.
And so around and around it goes. And before anyone emails me to debate... I honestly don't have any interest in debating a stranger. I see arguments online all the time. It's amazing how much online discourse is just one side pretending not to understand things, thus making discourse impossible. And so I have no desire to become embroiled in an online debate. I really only wrote this post to lament that I haven't had a debate with any of my personal friends in some time. I think they were good for me (us) and so it's a shame that I've lost that.
Yours Truly,
[Redacted]