So I should surrender to the inevitable? My friend's snarky references to "societal entropy" are on the mark?
Depends on the method of surrender; and as far as social entropy goes, I'd have to agree.
BTW, in nearly posting but ultimately declining, I am policing myself. Where are the rest of the gang?
Chest-thumping and fighting over whose nonsensical argument wins more. There are several times I've written up a brilliant response, about two paragraphs long, and then just hit "back" because I somehow knew it wouldn't be read. Other times, I've posted it, and it was short and sweet, but nobody bothered reading it. I've just given up on the political forum altogether.
This is something that's really been bugging me about the internet. Every forum, including THR and APS, is full of two-sided arguments that just go back and forth until the cows come home and the sun's risen the next day. YouTube comments are a
fine example of this. When both sides
think know they're right and the other's wrong, bickering continues until either a mod locks the thread or they're unable to check the thread for longer than a week. Don't forget to factor in the whole "last word" psychosis that everyone seems to have, too.
The problem is, people can't be trusted to police themselves, because the few who can't do it will ruin everything for everyone else. The few moderators are slow to banning a poster, because they're naievely good people and believe that their warnings will talk some sense into the offending member. It rarely works. And if they do ban someone, they fear retribution in some form or another. Remember the DDoS attacks we had a while back?
In the end, there's no way to win. People these days weren't raised right.