I find it hard to be annoyed by most of them (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, 18:30 (3946 days ago) @ Avateur

From my observations at least, conversations and debates dwindle to inflammatory nonsense not because of the opinions or facts being stated, but the way in which they are stated, on both sides.

God forbid someone gets emotional or passionate in a dissenting way, and all of a sudden we get "So much pessimism on the forums." or "Don't be such a debbie downer!"

I will say, on a fan forum, it does make sense that passionate love for the thing in-fandom-of is met with a warmer welcome than passionate dislike, considering the audience, doesn't it? If you wanted a more neutral-opinionated forum, I would think a place with "Destiny" in the title wouldn't be a good indicator of that... But that's just my thoughts. :)

Also from my observations, "passionate in a dissenting way" tends to communicate in a very different form than passionate in a positive way. I'm not referring to you here; I know by experience that when I make a post out of anger, it tends to be among the stupidest things I've ever said, and it rarely generates a quality discussion. :)

But I think the biggest problem on both sides of an intense debate, is a tendency to group people who think differently than you into one big group. That's what I think causes the offensive and defensive attitudes - all of the sudden you're mistaking your anger for that one loud, rude person with the calm folk who happen to share the same opinion with them. I make that mistake all the time, on the internet and in real life.