Spot on comments.Lacewing wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:10 pmMe too... and it seems strangely difficult or rare to accomplish online.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:16 pm Yeah, ideally I want to have what I consider a conversation with people online.
All throughout my life, I've had philosophical/thoughtful conversations with people in person. I have not studied anyone else's philosophy (except Christianity in my youth), rather it has always seemed natural to think philosophically to a certain extent, which other people have noted about me. It seems most reasonable and true to look at life from many angles and observe the workings of that, and consider the outcomes and implications... without being blinded by personal favor/payoff. To boldly explore beyond ego/identity as much as possible.
It takes courage and honesty to explore rather than latching/settling onto a belief/platform.
A lot of people on this forum use it to construct mental/belief structures to serve themselves, and to avoid the inconvenience of anyone challenging them on it -- as would happen in person. Some seem to have mental issues, and online communication is probably their primary interaction with the rest of the world. It's not honest.
Agreed! This forum has turned out (for me) to be more for entertainment, than for exchanging honest, brave discussions. It has shown me just how messed up and manipulative a lot of people are. I honestly didn't guess there could be so many in one place. Here's what I gain from it when I want to deal with it: 1) I get to practice dealing with world madness/nonsense in a non-serious way -- which has strengthened me in dealing with life; 2) I get to question and oppose and mock beliefs/claims that many people think it inappropriate to question/oppose/mock -- which is good for keeping mentally limber and open; and 3) there's a lot of humor in it, so it makes me laugh a lot -- which is healthy for one's entire being.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:16 pm Offline, when I'm interacting with someone in person, if I ask them a question and they don't answer--and in a rather direct way that makes sense as an answer in the context of the question, I'm going to have a problem with them and I'm not going to consider that a conversation. I wouldn't keep spending time with that person. And if they keep pestering me, things are going to turn a lot more harsh than putting someone on ignore.
This forum is the only one I use in my free time. The prior philosophy forum I was on was too rigidly structured. This one seems a bit overrun by insanity -- but there's value in learning to deal with everything, I suppose. It has been insightful/informative in ways I didn't expect.
I think it would be very interesting if people actually followed a reasonable line of questioning about beliefs/claims without darting into hiding/avoidance by erupting into noisy babbling or by adding on more nonsense claims/projections to derail and drown out all else. Such noise obscures any reasonable, true, or courageous philosophical exploration -- but apparently that's the best that people can do sometimes.
What's frustrating to me about it is that when I first started using the Internet in 1994, it actually was possible to have extensive good-faith discussions about philosophy online. I was a regular on the IRC Undernet #philosophy channel from 1994 through the early 2000s, when it finally started dying off as the Internet was changing and gaining all sorts of new bells and whistles.
It was normal on Undernet #philosophy to have 20-30 people paying attention at the same time where you could have what amounted to extended Socratic dialogues with a number of people, without it devolving into people simply being stubborn (and essentially putting their hands over their ears and going "la la la la"), without it devolving into flaming, etc. (partially thanks to smart moderation). It seems to me like something changed culturally over the past 20 years or so that makes it far less likely to be able to have Socratic dialogues like that with others online. I'm not sure what led to those attitudinal changes, but I keep hoping that it might turn around.