Rational VS. Emotional, OR, Why We Clash The Way We Do

JamesSand wrote:

James, all I meant was that when emotions run too high, it helps to be aware of where they're coming from. I never meant to take the responsibility of managing one's own emotions and place it on someone else's shoulders. Ultimately, each person's words and actions are their responsibility. In hindsight, I should have added that disclaimer to my response. Thank you for making that clear to me.

Bold mine - that bit is the basis for a particular set of politics. I'm not agreeing with it or disagreeing with it, I'm just sort of "filing it" for future reference.

If I may be so bold (pun intended), we can put a name to it, too: Liberalism. The idea that people are individuals and better off treated with dignity.

Italics also mine - This is the whole "Emotional Intelligence" thing that is very on-trend right now. Businesses send their staff on courses for it, there's plenty of books and such, for one reason or another, a segment of society has determined that emotions exist, but can be understood, and should be subject to the powers of reason - again, another basis for a particular philosophy or political alignment.

Yes, we can put a name on that, too: Pragmatism. The idea that recognizing rote observable facts about the world around us can benefit us in living in it in very tangible ways and that we thus may be better off doing so than refusing to.

JamesSand wrote: Which was fine, when we controlled education and information and the ability to broadcast your views - We could let people controlled by emotion go nuts on their opinions in the local pub, or yelling at clouds, where it was more or less harmless - but then we gave everyone a voice, the USA had things like theSh Fairness doctrine, where even the most batshit insane views were entitled to Air Time (the more people disagreed with them, the more Air time they were entitled to!)

and now, in the twenty-whatevers, with the internets and such - we have an underlying cultural assumption that your opinion, no matter how little it matters, is somehow valid.

Allowing someone to express their opinion freely isn't the same thing as declaring their opinion to be valid, in my opinion.

I want to chime in here though I am a little late to the party and the point has been touched on a bit already.

There are several things that i think scar today's environment of discussion.

Emotions are not inharetly bad in discussions, there is room for them however, we often do not move past the initial reaction. When applying emotional feeling to a debate, which can strengthen ones point of view. However, these emotions in context of discussion should be somewhat supported by facts. This is very much absent in mainstream debate at the moment IMHO

I agree that people try to illicit "off the rails" emotion as a victory signal. This is an issue because that line of "off the rails" is constantly shifting depending on the person, cause, and the reception of the message to the second parties in the discussions. Since we cannot sociatly agree where this line is it tends to get a little out of hand and people in general tend to fall back to tribalism, appeal to autority or out right misinterpretation of sources with out adding context.

The last thing I wanted to touch and has been touched on, is that people tend to not actually accept that middle ground as exsisting in any exchange of ideas, this is particularly bothersome to me. I see it often in my line of work and in my schooling as I go through my Master's.

Just 2 cents. Also, please excuse typos and spelling errors, I broke my pinkie and it makes it diffcult to catch them since i cannot click on them right with this chromebook.

Much Love, Peace and Respect,
Kobos

Kobos wrote: I want to chime in here though I am a little late to the party and the point has been touched on a bit already.

There are several things that i think scar today's environment of discussion.

Emotions are not inharetly bad in discussions, there is room for them however, we often do not move past the initial reaction. When applying emotional feeling to a debate, which can strengthen ones point of view. However, these emotions in context of discussion should be somewhat supported by facts. This is very much absent in mainstream debate at the moment IMHO

I agree that people try to illicit "off the rails" emotion as a victory signal. This is an issue because that line of "off the rails" is constantly shifting depending on the person, cause, and the reception of the message to the second parties in the discussions. Since we cannot sociatly agree where this line is it tends to get a little out of hand and people in general tend to fall back to tribalism, appeal to autority or out right misinterpretation of sources with out adding context.

The last thing I wanted to touch and has been touched on, is that people tend to not actually accept that middle ground as exsisting in any exchange of ideas, this is particularly bothersome to me. I see it often in my line of work and in my schooling as I go through my Master's.

Just 2 cents. Also, please excuse typos and spelling errors, I broke my pinkie and it makes it diffcult to catch them since i cannot click on them right with this chromebook.

Much Love, Peace and Respect,
Kobos

You bring up a good thing there, with initial reaction; that's a part of emotional maturity, and that's something that requires engaging honestly with ourselves- introspection.

There have been occasions where I find myself responding a certain way, and when I stop to think about why, I surprise myself.

There's also a cultural angle- I'm American, and regardless of our politics, our first inclination on a lot of subjects at the slightest friction is to fight, the internet didn't bring this out in people, it amplified it.

The middle ground is always an option, just not always a good one, but that gets back to "is this the hill I want to die on?" And more often than we want to believe, the middle ground IS just agreeing to disagree, and moving on. It just keeps coming back to knowing ourselves, and setting aside our desire to "win".

Those are my thoughts, and I like how this thread is going, so far. I'm surprised it's lasted this long, honestly.

Smiley face !