)but I'm not as educated in many areas as I'd like to be.My Dad told me this one day while we were playing catch, and I consider it to be one of the, if not the most, influential things anybody's ever said to me.
I'm pretty smart, (Well at least I think so )but I'm not as educated in many areas as I'd like to be.
There are some people in thess forums in which I admire greatly, (Baloo is the most prominent, IMHO)because they can post opinions that can be eloquently discussed, and are knowledgable enough in the subject in question that they can back their opinion up without looking like a total ass.
I don't reply to alot of subjects for a few reasons. First, I may not be educated on a certain topic enough (Like the church topics), and I would just end up polluting the topic with misinformation. And second, I may not want to argue over such a trivial piece of information.
There seem to be some people here who cannot restrain themselves from posting outrageous opinions, some of which I'm certain the posters themselves don't believe.
It gets harder and harder to read topics after they've scraggled on for too long because they get innundated under so much S#!t, that it's hard to see what the actual discussion was about.
So, I guess I come to the point. Or rather, a request. I wish that before you post to a discussion in this forum, I implore you to know what you're talking about and don't spew filth just for the sake of infuriating someone.
I'd like to contribute too, but sometimes, due to the lack of direction of some posts and the personal rivalries.
I hope this makes sense.
------------------
"I've never seen anything this beautiful in the entire galaxy. Alright, give me the bomb" -Ultra Magnus, Fight or Flee
------------------
"Obesity. Adiposity. Corpulence. Whatever word you use, it represents one thing: being a big fatass."
Geraldo Rivera
I also don't rush in to post a reply (except a facetious one) until I've had a chance to look up my facts, and ensure I do not quote all my information from a single source. Whether it's true or not, when you quote only one person, book, website, or other authority, you sound like you are just parrotting back what you read or heard. Sometimes I can't cite a source. When I can't I try to be certain that it's understood that what I'm saying is an opinion.
When someone says something you disagree with, think. Don't just jump in, tell them they're wrong, and then tell them what they ought to believe. All you're saying (with far to many words) is "You stupid! This is what you ought to say!"
Oh, that argument is Reeeally convincing! 
Do you understand what the other person is saying? Even if you don't believe it, that's a very important step. If you enter every debate as if it were a contest, rather than an effort to tell others what you think (and possibly what you know), then the only loser is the truth, and there are no winners.
--Baloo
P.S.: Ultra Magnus -- Thanks for the complement, but let's not let it go to my head, okay?
------------------
"Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, for the same reason."
--(Unknown)[B]
Come Hither and Yawn...
Having thought things over, maybe I don't post so infrequently. I still make sure I'm prepared before I jump into a fray, though.
--Baloo
------------------
"Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, for the same reason."
--(Unknown)[B]
Come Hither and Yawn...
*is thinking it over again*
I agree with you guys. I seldom seem to post to any debates any more, just spout silly nonsense to get laughs. (Hell, if I wanted to get a big laugh i could always drop my trousers...)
What i find interesting is that even when discussing "unreal" topics like starship length or configuration, we STILL seem to end up with entrenched positions that will not budge. Now, I personally don't believe in odd-numbered nacelled starships, but it's evidently taken as given on the Starships forum.
I must go now, and be facetious in serious topics elsewhere.
------------------
"I cannot live out that life.
That man is bereft of passion... and imagination!
That is not who I am!"
Oh well, while I'm coming up with a new name, just call me Liam. And I'll call you Robbie. Deal?
------------------
"Obesity. Adiposity. Corpulence. Whatever word you use, it represents one thing: being a big fatass."
Geraldo Rivera
Seriously, I find it disappointing that threads filled with how everyone who disagrees with the current poster is a racist ignoramus who knows nothing of worth, and a thread about trying to understand one another without trying to flame the heretics falls to the wayside.
What are your priorities, folks?
--Baloo
------------------
"Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, for the same reason."
--(Unknown)[B]
Come Hither and Yawn...
------------------
"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.
------------------
"Obesity. Adiposity. Corpulence. Whatever word you use, it represents one thing: being a big fatass."
Geraldo Rivera
If you can't express your own views immediately, then don't snipe at someone else's. Especially if your counter-argument hinges upon the supposed deficiencies in the other person's intellectual capacity or ancestry. Calling someone a racist does not explain your position on a subject. Calling them stupid or brainwashed does not necessarily mean you are some kind of genius. It just means you can't think of anything so say, but you intend to say something anyway. Remember how you always thought of what you should have said after it's too late? This is a message board. It's never too late, especially if you haven't already made an ass of yourself by responding in the heat of the moment.
Not immediately responding to someone else's argument does not mean you've decided they are right and you are wrong. It could mean that you are looking up more information to present on the side of your viewpoint or that you are choosing the right words for your response. When you respond to someone's viewpoint by violently disagreeing and calling them names, you have only proven that you can't keep your mouth shut when you have nothing worthwhile to say.
Go do your homework. Treat others with respect. Then if they call you an idiot for expressing your point-of-view, everyone will know they are an idiot and rush to your defense (though not necessarily to the defense of your viewpoint).
I may not agree with the views of everyone in these forums, but I hate it when someone stops trying to explain his/her own position and starts showing everyone what an idiot they are by telling everyone what an idiot the other guy is. Why? Because they don't agree.
--Baloo
------------------
"Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, for the same reason."
--(Unknown)[B]
Come Hither and Yawn...
[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited January 10, 2000).]
Either that or the giving up smoking thigs finally gotten to him.
Still he's right. Which is why eveyone respects Baloo's opinions slightly more than "you all SUX! You're a11 gay brainwashed sh1tz!"
------------------
"Sorry Wendy, I jsu can't trust something that bleeds for five days and doesn't die."
Mr Garrison
------------------
You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend far too much time reading this sort of trash.
------------------
"Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, for the same reason."
--(Unknown)[B]
Come Hither and Yawn...
Err, I mean...
go to hell you wanker!
(I think I missed the point of this thread, but that's all I can come up with)
------------------
"Here is another word that rhymes with shame" - Kurt Cobain
Blew, Nirvana
. ------------------
Samaritan: "A good hot curry will help heal your wounds. That is, unless your religion forbids it".
Man: (Eyes growing wide) "No religion forbids a good hot curry".
-From some movie.
------------------
Smithers, do you realize if I had died, there would be no one to carry on my legacy. Due to my hectic schedule and lethargic sperm, I never fathered an heir. Now I have no one to leave my enormous fortune to. No one.
~C. Montgomery Burns
------------------
Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
------------------
Death before Dishonor!
However Dishonor has
quite a disputed defintion.
Everyone has opinions - that's the beauty of free-speech .. I respect everyone's opinion, even tho' I may not completely agree with it.
But I'm not going to slam someone for an opinion that is neither wrong nor right .. it's an opinion after all..
I also agree that some people simply spew out their thoughts without thinking .. and end up looking likes asses !!
Hats off to Baloo and PsiLiam
------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!!
- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;
[This message has been edited by Alshrim Dax (edited January 12, 2000).]