Re: Future of online fora

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 13:44:29 -0400, Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 4/3/2025 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote:

On 4/3/2025 7:02 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 4/3/2025 1:09 PM, AMuzi wrote:

On 4/3/2025 10:58 AM, cyclintom wrote:

>
Frank, you have spent a great deal of your life being subjective. Or
should I say, strongly opinionated?

>
>
WTF??
I consider 'strongly opinionated' to be a compliment.

>
As opposed to "All truth is subjective. All opinions are valid.
Nothing can be known. Ommmmmm....."   ;-)
>
>

 
You continually consistently and annoyingly misstate that.

>
Sorry you're annoyed, but in interactions between two strongly
opinionated people, I suppose it's common that one becomes annoyed. And
it's more likely to be the one whose strongly held opinion is wrong.
>

To observe that personal opinions are, in fact, personal is not to say
that nothing is true.
 
But policy preferences from agreed undisputed facts are areas for
discussion and persuasion (or, in extremis, coercion by those who could
not prevail in argument).

>
As I see it, "policy preferences" are generally opinions on the outcomes
of proposed policies. And those certainly can be correct or wrong.
>
There was once a policy preference for invading Iraq. As I recall, the
prediction was that the Iraqis would welcome us with flowers. That
turned out to be very wrong.
>
There was and still is some policy preference for lowering taxes (the
Laffer Curve) as a way to increase government income and lower deficits.
That was very wrong - although many are carefully ignoring proven
history and still pushing it. (I suspect they don't really believe it,
but want personal benefits for themselves and their wealthy allies.)
>
And back to opinions as opposed to policies: For a long time there were
opinions strongly expressed in this group that bike frames that
restricted tire sizes to 23mm were significantly faster. I think few now
believe that opinion was true.
>

To agree that the speed of light is constant or that E=R/I or whatever
has no bearing on policy preferences, which are not truths, have no
single answer and are inherently personal.

>
Some things are correct, some things are wrong. E is not equal to R/I.

Policies are different from opinions. Policies may be based on
opinions, but there are many reasons why policy can go wrong.

--
C'est bon
Soloman