The Nice Debate Thread!

Actually, EC is one of the best communities I've seen for having fairly fierce debates whilst keeping fairly friendly and civil - but I thought this could be an interesting thread...

On this thread you are allowed to debate as strongly as you wish on controversial issues But...

Your post must start and end with a nice/positive/'fair point'/friendly thing to say about the argument posted by the person above you and/or the person you are taking a different view to...

So, for example, (and this is an entirely fictional post currently) I might be having a fierce debate with someone who supported fox hunting and I might make a post like...

"[Nice bit] - I liked your comments about the Boxing Day hunts when you were little - I love Boxing Day because we get together with my Mum's extended family who are mostly very different to us but I still get along with them really well and I love how we all stay connected. My aunt and some cousins love hunting because they love horses and riding around in the countryside (I love horses too but sadly they run the risk of killing me since I'm horribly allergic!)

[Debate bit] - I find it very hard to understand why the torture element of fox hunting is so fiercely fought for. I get that foxes may have to be culled but I don't understand why it has to be in such an inefficient and cruel way.

Drag hunting could (and does) fulfill the same 'riding around in the countryside' enjoyment of fox hunting but without the horrible death. Why do fox hunting advocates fight so fiercely for that bit?

[Nice bit] - What other Boxing Day traditions do you have? My aunt's husband is Danish so we always have a really nice meal starting with pickled raw fish (it's a lot nicer than it sounds!) and accompanied by lager and snapps (which may explain why I think the pickled raw fish is a lot nicer than it sounds!)

So... if you are up for it, feel free to post any controversial topics you may wish to debate - but sticking within the parameters as demonstrated above!

 

imsoconfused - I agree with you so no difficulties with the [nice bit] there!

TechnoBoy - ]

[Nice bit] A great big and genuine thanks for being the first to reply to the thread, for being so positive about it and for posting an interesting debate topic! :icon_bigg

[Debate bit] Like imsoconfused I am asthmatic and spent a lot of childhood being ill following meals out in pubs etc because of the smoke. When I was at university I used to get all the effects of a hangover after a night out, even if I hadn't had any alcohol because the smoke had restricted my breathing during the evening and made me feel so rubbish the next day.
I know people who make comments about smokers having a choice but for many years non-smokers did not have a choice about what we had to put up with in so many public spaces.
I was also deeply affected by spending time with my friend's now eight-year old brother, C, when he was about four. He is asthmatic and both his parents smoke about 40 cigarettes a day. I had C on my lap while I was feeding him a yoghurt and I could barely get it down him because he was coughing and spluttering so much. I thought then "how can any parent justify doing this to their child and surely this amounts to child abuse?" and still do every time I meet him and he stinks of smoke.
With regards to the smoking area suggestion, in my experience cigarette smoke is an incredibly pervasive thing that seems to get in absolutely everywhere and stick.

[Nice bit] You say you don't smoke - do you have friends who do, who you're sticking up for? I tend to get a bit ignorant sometimes about smoking because I've never done it so I don't know what it feels like to be addicted, even though I have friends I really like who do smoke. I remember being at a meeting where a non-smoker who hated smoke being around her spoke out about it being really harsh that owing to certain behaviours (this is a specialist unit) some people weren't being allowed to smoke. Someone else commented on how good of her it was to feel empathy for smokers despite hating smoking so much herself - if that's where you're coming from, I'd like to extend the same comment/compliment to you!

 

I'm from Britain and I'm not even quite sure! :lol: It has something to do with terribly rich folks giving poor folks a sort of charity box of goodies the day after Christmas. So Boxing Day is always the day after Christmas.

My family have Christmas Day at home and then travel off to my Mum's extended family for Boxing Day.

 

[Nice bit] - You think exactly the same way as me about smoking (except I'd ban it in bars too!) and I feel very strongly that smokers do not have the right to impose their 'choices' on non-smokers! :eusa_clap

[Debate bit] - Please don't forget the [nice bit] of this thread's guidelines! (Meaning start with a positive comment about the/an opposing party's arguments, putting the 'debate bit' in, then returning with a 'nice bit' at the end of your post

[Nice bit] - You made very intelligent points that were almost exactly the ones that I was about to make! :icon_bigg

 

As this is the Nice Debate thread we may get several debates going on at once... can I propose using colours to separate the debates?

Can I therefore request (picking a colour at random) that any further responses on 'Smoking in Public Places' are posted in purple?

Can I propose my example debate of Fox Hunting be debated in red?

So if anyone is commenting on a pre-existing debate, please put all posts in the debate's relevant colour.

If someone is proposing a new debate, please choose a colour that either hasn't been used yet or hasn't been used in a long time.

{Can you tell that I'm a teacher (?)(!) :icon_wink }

---------- Post added 9th Nov 2013 at 12:17 AM ----------



Fox Hunting...

[Nice bit] I am hopeful of being able to find common ground with people on this debate, even those opposed to my view, just as I do with those of my family who feel very differently to me on this topic.

[Debate bit] So... what do people think of Fox Hunting?

I am strongly opposed as I feel that fox hunting is based on the concept of torturing an animal and its experiencing a very horrible death, rather than the claims that the majority of fox hunters make (that it culls foxes, etc). I feel that the continuation of fox hunting in its current form is about the glorification of murder and death.

[Nice bit] do understand and appreciate that fox hunting comes from long standing custom and culture that is very valuable to people - It's just about how that custom and culture is used and addressed now.]



---------- Post added 9th Nov 2013 at 12:31 AM ----------

Thank you, thank you hehe

Yeah you are right, I should of went about that in a different way. :icon_redf

Not sure if I followed the rules of the thread there?[/QUOTE]

:lol: This is going to be an adjustment period! :icon_wink

Black is going to continue as an admin / thread questions colour...

I am such a geek!!!!:icon_redf

 

Bump! I think this thread has potential so I'm making a shameless attempt at keeping it somewhere on the front page! :icon_wink

 

I'm probably really going to test the success of the Nice Debate Thread with this one ...


[Nice bit] The majority of the television and films I love have come from America.

[Debate bit] Reading a lot of the posts by American posters and thinking about things I've read academically about American culture... It often seems to me as if American culture and patriotism is almost entirely built on stories and totally biased accounts of history. I'm certain that such comments can't be restricted to just America and Britain can be very guilty of this too but with America it seems particularly profound.

The American constitution and other pieces of American writing like it often seem to work on some sort of fairytale about the origins of America that most people know just isn't true. And then such 'patriotic' Americans talk passionately about 'the land of the free' whilst simultaneously publicising some of the most racist, homophobic, paranoid material there is.

[Nice bit] I know that this image of America is not true for many, many Americans and I think America is sometimes at the forefront of things we in Britain/Europe are quite a way behind in.

[Potentially controversial bit] (A Black President, for example, I fear it may be a while before the first black Prime Minister in Britain but at least America showed the so called impossible can be achieved. (I realise not everyone (and not every American) will be in favour of Obama but I think the important bit is that people were shouting that a Black President would never happen in our lifetime and it did, so that matters and is important whatever you think of Obama.) ]

[Other Nice Bit] I wonder how many of us are somehow related to Americans but don't know it... This is probably where I find out one of you is my long lost relative from the 17th century!