Really really simple guideline for better judgement

[dakhun]

It's pretty simple:

If you don't want an argument, and don't want to lose friends, then don't post bullshit that is guaranteed to get you an argument and guaranteed to anger your friends.

Comments

[whitetail]

Just an observation. My late friend Paul and I used to get into raging arguments all the time, but it never affected our fondness for each other. We argued over this, that and the other for 37 years, and I miss our shouting matches - and him - dearly. Our friendship transcended personal differences, like all real friendships do.

[dakhun]

Well, there are benefits to having an argument if one or both parties learn something, and that's probably what you had between each other.

I suppose that it is all a question of the motivation behind the argument.

You see, the last couple of arguments I had with people have ended in the other party saying, before anybody had learned anything, that they didn't want to continue the discussion. That's not good. They just wanted to win, when they weren't even prepared to discuss the topic in the first place. They didn't want to learn anything by way of preparation before having the argument, and so it is probably no surprise that they didn't want to learn anything coming out of it. Basically, it was nothing more than wrath and fail, and who wants that? Anger shouldn't be the motivation, or that's all that will result...

[whitetail]

Quite true, that's an important distinction there.