So freaking true...

I am eternally amused that I find myself doing this very often. xD

Ideally, in a debate -and even a friendly one- I would like to have my idea and points challenged as much as I want to challenge yours.
After all, in my belief I am correct. But I am willing to listen to you to and perhaps end up with a greater understanding or even re-evalutating my own point of view.

This does hinge on the fact that my debate partner is willing to engage in the same. And I wholly agree on you with this horrible decade in which you can't even fart without risking Internet Cancellation because it is smelly.

Of course there is the paradox of tolerance. But that is neither here or now.

Why is this called dog sneeze?

I'm glad you asked: when dogs rough-house and the game gets heated, sometimes one of them will pause and sneeze to signal the other that this is still just playing, not actual fighting.

Oooh interesting. thanks for the quick answer

They do this while playing with humans too! Its a very cute gesture once you understand its meaning.

It means they're having fun. :)

sometime I wish I could have a basic, political debate on local territory without the need of internationall bull getting in the way, but heck, here there are politician trying to get a key event that happened exactly 30 years ago to happen again, and last time winner was the "the only thing we have is that we are not the other peoples that were here before". FFS, I wish for politicians that actually do the governing part, and not have that bent to one side or the other.

Society

I know the feelining.

I can count the number of times I've had a political conversation with someone who's legitimately interested in understanding what their opposing side believes on my scphlorinx.

Like, I really don't think my opponents have anything to say that's going to bring me to their side completely - all I can ever lose are my strawmen. Even if I don't think I can be moved, surely I'm better off knowing their arguments, being able to articulate them even better than they can, so that I'm more prepared to substantively challenge their positions.

It would be humbling to have someone do that to mine, but it's never happened. It's easy to think strong arguments against what I believe don't exist when nobody takes the initiative to learn what they're challenging in an honest way. I truly am led to believe my opposition (at least, within the 'culture war', as that seems to be a central point of contention) is legitimately arguing from a point of faith, superstition, and misinformation. Sounds silly and dismissive but it may very well be true.

But yeah, I just wish people would listen more. It's endlessly frustrating to hear but never be heard.

I actually understood the title reference.

Also, yes, fuck this decade.

It's gotten to the point that I honestly wish people would selfishly vote in favor of their personal survival instead of being willing to sacrifice that if it screws other people even worse. Well, maybe someday we'll escape the binary non-choice of options, but not today.

On an interesting related note, a major academic research project finds that the intervention that most successfully reduced partisan animosity and anti-democratic attitudes was watching this beer ad. Yes, really.

Interestingly enough, I believe my country got worse when it broke off the binary system. We used to have a left party and a right party and they had to stay moderate in order to convince enough undecided voters to their side. Now they just rely on alliances with the extremists parties, which make laws for the extremist voters. Then again, the extremist parties were always there - they just suddenly became popular. However, this is just my opinion.

What do you do when you try to have an honest debate, but one side or both are set in their ideologies that they close any conversation when their world view is challenged?

I dislike arguments and avoid political conversations.

When it's forced upon me, I play it safe. I try to remain neutral and not taking any sides, thus not angering anyone. In extreme cases I'll simply nod and remain silent.
Then I try to change the conversation to something more pleasant.

Long story short, I too hate this decade.

I mean, by doing that you stay neutral... but remove any power you have to change the situation too...

Personally, those 'party' lines were too rigid, so I preferred being Independent. Better to let history shape how things should be. There's too much... fanaticism in this age... no one really just takes a minute to look around and think, ya know?

Sorry for causing any stress, just wanted to chime in ^^

*whistles for the cuddle harem* "We need twenty hours of snuggles, STAT!"

Ever since 2014 the world has seen like a Bleaker place to me

And this is why I avoid politics and instead engineer my own little corner of imagination run by machines and synthetic intelligences. Good thing about change though, it is perpetual and it will eventually force this decade to vanish whether it wants to or not. In the meantime, let's all enjoy cute/lewd things. And caramel macchiato coffee... I'm not an addict I swear.

Don Quixote said that "neither good or evil last forever, and therefore, since evil has lasted so long, good must be soon to come."

My favorite candidate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fZvH7FkdY

The last man nearly ruined this place,
He didn't know what to do with it.
If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'till I get through with it.

http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Hu.....stration.phtml

Mood. Oh Luv. I TOTALLY agree and it SUCKS that people are shutting down their reasonability to vote "party line". May the gods have mercy on our souls.

This is the most important mental exercise in existence, and the least practiced one. ALWAYS challenge your perceptions and concepts with outside ideas to be sure they're sound. At the very least, you'll gain the ability to defend them with certainty if someone else attacks them, rather than just blindly refusing to budge.

yup...

Can relate. While I dunno if I'm as intellectually honest with myself as I'd like to believe, I'd really prefer it if things weren't so divisive and plain mean. Granted, I do kinda wish I could change some people's minds to think more like me, but... at the end of the day, I'd really just prefer if we could find the truth, grapple with it honestly, and maybe hammer out some practical ways to deal with it, even if they're not perfect.

But not real sure how to do any of that when I'm likely just to get yelled at for having the wrong opinion. If this is some sort of karma for being a jerk when I was younger, when am I done paying for my sins? I just wanna build a decent life with some purpose to it.

"Making up for the evil of my past" is unarguably the raddest reason for kindness.

In current times, kindness seems like a small rebellion against the chaos and evil unleashed in the world. Not sure if anyone knows what the heck is going on, but staying humble and kind is always a good idea. Provided you understand what that means, of course. Being a doormat probably won't help anybody.

Clown world is not a Euphemism these days