To think people thrive on conflict?

[Arealmanithink]

Awful lot of goady fuckers/ trolls/self righteous pain in the asses around, and their numbers seem to be increasing.. I'm sure the media shit stirring (you know who you are) doesn't help. Are people becoming more polarized? More militant? Less empathetic? Or is the world the same and my perception just changing? Just asking..

There's not more trolls IMO. Just a lot more whingers and these days people seem to love being offended.

Did you mean to be so rude?

Trolls shrivel up and die if you don't feed them.

In pursuit.. I agree
Foxes .. piss off..lol
Faire.. Sometimes they just get angry..

Lots of people know how to quarrel, but not how to debate. And take opposing views very personally. It's tiresome, but there we are.

Teach debating and philosophy in schools as compulsory subjects, I say.

Angela.. Nice idea but.. how many students will engage?

I think it's the same really.

There are always lovely, warm, witty people.

There are always obnoxious, spiteful, mean-thinking people.

I think there are far more of the first than the second. Although I have been drinking.

All of them, if it is a core subject you have to pass to be taken seriously in tertiary education. Pipe dream, I know.

Pinky.. My point is that it's the second that are getting more play.. Because they're louder and they make more of a splash.. ie. Katie Hopkins..

I loved the debate club at school. I still love a good debate now.
I get called a troll all the time just because I often disagree with popular opinion.
I'm very blunt and forthright sometimes. In RL this is less of a problem - 10% what you say 90% how you say it etc.
in print when there is no tone it can sound rude.
I think most people are basically nice though.

It does seem as if there are a lot of people who have a certain view about something, which is fine, but then, in defending that view they completely fail to understand that other people might disagree with them!!!

Academia has lots of these people

Well, I think it's probably true that producers think that spite and lack of humanity make better television. Which is sad really.

So from that point of view I think you may be right.

It's not like that in real life though is it? I meet far more lovely people than I do arseholes.

And you can have a really robust debate without descending into personal attack. Or are you thinking that people do descend into personal attack and that's the issue?

In pursuit.. I think most people are basically nice too. Until their beliefs/habits/routines/everyday taken for granted ways they work/ are challenged. Then defensiveness kicks in, and the natural response when you're defensive, is to attack or just be mean.. There seems to be a lot of that instead of discussion or debate.. It makes me sad.

Punky.. Exactly!! There's no debate. It's becoming espousing your beliefs or justifying your actions..Not having a discussion..

Arealmanithink I quite agree

Which is ok.. so long as you don't get personal. Mean or ugly about it.

Well, I don't know about mean or ugly OP, given that you just called me Punky... However, rising above the gratuitous name-calling...

I still think it is as it ever was - conflict is more entertaining than everyone getting along nicely; outrage is more entertaining than civilised debate; and the internet allows pretty well everything to be anonymised.

I think we're probably all defensive when our beliefs are attacked - it's just that on a face-to-face basis we're mostly still going to be really polite and buttoned up even if underneath we want to scoop the person's eyes out with a teaspoon.