Remembering my own observation that we are seldom persuaded by those who disagree with us completely, but more often by those who we have some agreement with, I have been visiting some centrist and unclassifiable blogs. The hard-right sites have enough soft-right visitors attempting to persuade, and if I went too far left I would become a mere thorn and troll.* I have not the self control for that task. But I get along with centrists reasonably well online. I do find that many are actually quite liberal, and are either surrounded by such leftists that they think themselves centrist, or they have a few areas of disagreement with the liberal norm. But others are quite genuine. I have been using my regular AVI blogname thus far, but I think I need to reinforce the idea of changing my attitude by taking a different name.
I shall be traveling as Mr. Underhill.
The Thorn and Troll would be a great name for an English pub, wouldn't it?
I shall be traveling as Mr. Underhill.
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Great nom de plumee...or should I say alias?
ReplyDeleteI like both names.
ReplyDeleteA church I attended for years was pastored by a Ken Underhill. Does this mean you're going to be preachy?
ReplyDeleteThe Thorn and Troll would be a great name for Dave Barry's band as well as a pub name.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mr. Underhill is a good name, but will your be F. (for Frodo) or B. (for Bilbo)?
As you point out, it depends on the tendency of the website. My experience with those of very opposite views, such as PSF Chavista [Hugo Chavez] acolytes, is that it is a waste of time to comment and "engage" with them. Not even hard data will persuade them. The disclaimer is that this is especially so with left to far left websites.
ReplyDeleteMore centrist websites have been more amenable to my tirades on Latin America.While I trump feelings and attitudes with facts, just the same as at lefty sites,the more rational commenters provide support. One one occasion at a centrist website, a lefty commenter whom I had sparred with stated that he would no longer comment, while also stating I was a citizen of the country we were discussing [not so]. He saw he was defeated by my knowledge - and assumed that only a citizen would know what I did- and raised up the white flag. On a more lefty site, the commenter would have been more likely to resort to ad hominem or some such attack. The presence of more centrist commenters probably dissuaded him from ad hominem, as he knew he would have been quickly debunked.
[PSF= Pendejos Sin Fronteras; i.e., Fools Without/Across Frontiers.]
Thorn: reminds me of our friend Copithorne.
Gringo, interesting stories amongst the outer rim.
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