"CoV seems to have a lot to offer. I'm signed to a variety of lists, but no-where else to I find this quality of thinking - its just the tone of dialogue that occasionally bothers me."
As has been observed here recently the composition of Virus tends to be quite diverse, being composed of individuals from both sides of the conventional political spectrum and a great many who cannot be neatly slotted into that spectrum at all. That certainly creates friction from the outset. Since most dicussion forums tend to be formed from existing perspectives, rather than seeking to create a new one, I would also expect the degree of consensus here to differ from elsewhere.
With that in mind, views on debating style do, of course, remain intensely personal. That said, it does seem to me that combative and adversarial modes of debate have their problems but also a number of advantages not shared with more consensual styles.
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25797>
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