Is there anything we can agree on?

Question

So many arguments, so many insults, so many closed minds. Is there something everyone agrees on?

There is so much offense and defense being played here that people seem to be 'hard core feminists' and 'chauvanists' when I suspect that most of us are not really that extreme.

So I was wondering if there is a point or topic that you think everyone (or at least most) will agree with besides 'we agree to disagree'.

Sigy: It's not that important that we agree. The point is to remember that we are all human beings with opinions -not arch enemies threatening to destroy each others universes. The basic psychology is that if we relate to the 'enemy' we get closer to understanding him/her.

Answer 1

In looking for a point of agreement, first, all have to agree to join in with unbaised minds. Often, I see posters criticizing the opinion of another, simply because they are pre-conditioned (from previous exchanges) to disagree with them. When they do acknowledge agreement, it is often with sarcasm and condescention. So really - in this forum - I don't think you can find ANY subject about which all can agree. But then again, what would be the learning and growth in that?

Answer 2

1 = 1

Answer 3

I think most of us actually believe in the samething. I know very few people who actually believe every single person's life choices, personality, actions, etc... are and should be dictated by their gender, and those who do believe that also tend to believe the earth is 6,000 years old, so their opinion doesn't matter anyway. I truly do understand where many of the "anti-feminists" are coming from when they say feminism has only brought about a culture of misandry. I personally disagree and I think it is unfortunate they feel that way, but I do think they raise valid points.
I don't think most people on this forum are being serious when they post some of the things they do, and if they are, they are truly sad and confused individuals. I think most people just come here for boredom relief.

Answer 4

Yes, it's not all that hard.

I get grumpy at people, but then remind myself to take a chill pill and try and see their point of view.
A little while ago, I went off at guy here, and then I pm'd him after thinking about what he said and what I said, and told him that I understand now where he's coming from, and I did.
People here are passionate about issues, and while no-one has to put up with put-downs, sometimes it's worthwhile to see the other sides point of view.

Answer 5

We have to agree on lots of things. For instance, you probably could read that preceding sentence just fine, which means that we agree on the sounds and meanings represented by a bunch of pixels on a computer screen.

We know that 500 nm is a visible wavelength of light, that William the Conqueror arrived in England in 1066, and that Sacramento is the capital of California.

Steak comes from cows, area codes in the USA are three digits, and Hershey's chocolate syrup is brown.

XVIII is the Roman numeral for 18, Audrey Hepburn starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the planet Saturn has rings.

Oh, did you mean can feminists and traditionalists agree on anything? You got me there.

Answer 6

There is no need for me to agree with anyone on here on anything. You want your feminism ? Fine keep it. I got myself a nice traditional girl who doesnt buy into all that feminist stuff and aint an agony to be around with eithier. Most importantly she is not lazy.

Answer 7

Smile. I hear what you are saying, dear. The funniest thing is that in this crazy world we need each other. If only we could learn to respect each other's opinions, it would be a perfect world for all of us.

Answer 8

chauvinism: excessive devotion to any cause, esp. zealous and belligerent patriotism or blind enthusiasm for military glory...(named after Nicholas Chauvin, a soldier in Napoleon's army noted for loud-mouthed patriotism) [Random Hse. Dict.]

___I sympathize with your lament. But the differences lie very deep. Feminists and other proponents of academic conventional wisdom in the humanities tend to assume that reality is a social construct, and that the human condition is primarily felt, emotional, and subjective. A consequence of these assumptions is that debate becomes a primarily competitive or political affair, since there is no transcendent truth to be approached by the mutual criticism of intellectual give-&-take.
___Subjectivism sets up its own vicious circularity that is hard to penetrate, once one takes it as axiomatic, much like the abstract circularities of Medieval Scholasticism.
___It may be a tad enigmatic, but if I knock out a postmodernist with a 2x4 to the side of the head, that postmodernist's capacity to doubt the reality of the world is disabled. Though the effect is not an intellectual "proof", it trumps intellectual skepticism and subjectivism every time.
___Practical contact with the material world tends to deflate subjectivist convictions. When one's life or livelihood depends on knowing the properties and regularities of the physical world, it's hard to entertain the belief that these are merely subjective or socially constructed. On the other side, it's fairly easy for intellectuals to get carried away with the elegance of their theories, and to dismiss the importance of realities that aren't easily shoehorned into them. The feminist critique of phallocentrism points this out regarding theory of the past, but it seems unable to see that the same problem applies to its own theory.
___Even Heidegger, who labored mightily against the conventions of subjectivism, couldn't find his way out of its snares. His "Nietzsche", vols. 3&4 contain a valuable historical account of how we got to where we are, though.
___Most everyone here would agree that being good involves working for the benefit of others and avoiding or preventing harm to others. The two sides here disagree, though, on what reality is, what a person residing within that reality is, and what constitutes benefit or harm for that sort of being. There's even a debate about whether talking about reality in general, in terms of some common regular features (ontology), commits violence on the primacy of peoples differences (alterity).
___Most people don't get to this level of study, but are exposed in their educations only to the more concrete conclusions of whatever conventional consensus prevails in the academy, and so are unaware of the methods by which academic conventional wisdom is devised. At a somewhat higher level, graduate students are spoon-fed conventional methodology, and not given the opportunity to criticize it in the way that it criticizes its usual suspects.
___Profound disagreements like this occur when conventional wisdoms reach senescence. What's particularly confusing at this moment in history is that the prior age's conventional wisdom was the one that invented the practice of keeping historical records and accumulating knowledge, so that its vestiges remain even after centuries of Modern criticism. Modern conventional wisdom is able on this account to convince itself that beating the relatively dead horse of Ancient and Medieval thought is something radical, and accomplishes real critical thinking. Yet to criticize it completely would be to destroy the intellectual foundations on which civilization is built, and return us to the stone age. So Modern conventional wisdom in the humanities chases its tail in a frustrating pursuit of the impossible, fostering resentment for the reality that it comes to see as oppression. Unfortunately, it's not the presupposition of a transcendent reality that is oppressive, but the fact of it.
___I sympathize with your complaints. But solutions for them will take some time

Answer 9

that Baba Yapper is way scary old
and Rio needs some good loving soon

Answer 10

I think we can all agree that Y/A is a good way to pass the time.

Or at least most of us.