And therefore the likelihood that your participation in the hypothetical debate (or my participation in the tennis thread I mentioned, which is also about a general knowledge topic covered in newspapers I read daily yet had eluded my notice) would amount to more than clutter is low. To the OP of this thread, if the OPer wants to encourage participation from people who first learned about the topic from a link in the OP, then link away. If they don’t, then don’t. It depends on the type of discussion they desire.
Except it isn’t my field; it’s just a topic I’ve read about in the newspaper dozens of times and that has already been discussed dozens of times on these boards. Your defining IEPs in your OP isn’t going to suddenly gift me with the ability to debate you. And if I just want to learn, right-click → Web Search gets me any number of articles ranging from Wikipedia to journal articles that I can customize to my specific level of ignorance. There’s already enough barrier to creating OPs, especially in GD, that I’d rather you just start the thread than worry about getting me up to speed.
I won’t lie. Many times I’ve been prepared to reply to someone to refute what they’re saying, I’ve looked for a cite so that I wasn’t just talking out of my rear, and looking for a cite showed that I was wrong. It’s awesome because the only one who knows you are a jack-ass in that situation is you. I heartily recommend looking for cites just as self-preservation.
Been there, done that. I’ll even occasionally post what I learned (e.g., when I learned that “falsehood” didn’t just mean “false statement,” but meant “deliberately false statement”–I was sure it meant the former.)
it is a big ask of people but wherever possible we should be welcoming people to share exactly those experiences.
There’s no shame in being wrong, only in choosing to remain so.
Well, the times I remember most vividly, I was ready with a snarky or otherwise biting retort, before finding that I was wrong.
I will usually instead post the cite that supports the person I was going to argue against, appearing like I was on their side all along. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
I’ve defintely avoided admitting I was wrong in the past as well and it is always when I know that such an admission will not be taken in good grace and when I know that the other party wouldn’t also admit that they were wrong.
All very human but not very laudable and the debate is defintitely harmed because of it.
