I vaguely remember hearing a story about two politicians who had countless differences of opinion, yet liked to socialize and partake in activities together outside of their political careers. When one of them was asked how they were able to have such lively friendships in spite of their disagreements, they said “if you don't know how to separate people from opinions, you don't deserve to be a politician”.
TL;DR: it's important to be able to see people as more than the disagreements you have with them.
I think we all (including myself) need to remind ourselves sometimes that this is just a tiny website and its mostly just here for fun.
its really sad to see how divided and angry the community has become. I get it that people will argue sometimes, and arguments may get a bit out of hand, and that happens. I think many of us who have been involved in these dramas or “kerfuffles” are guilty of this, even I am to a degree. And that’s ok, that happens, and we might like each other less in the end, and that’s ok too, you don’t have to like everyone, that would be basically impossible.
The problem is when you don’t move on. The problem is when an entire group of users tries to villainize a user or multiple users. I don’t want to feel like this website is going to turn into opposing factions that could explode at any second.
Maybe an issue is important to you, maybe you feel that the other person is objectively wrong, but 9 times out of 10 there is no way you’re gonna be able to change the other person’s mind. and if an argument is going nowhere or is pretty clear that its about to turn into a fight, back out, and move on.
Losing an argument doesn’t feel great, but feeling like you have enemies is even worse, sometimes its ok to agree to disagree and end it there.