>>>>>You may be right, Alan, but there is also the possibility that something is presented as a fact where actually it isn't a fact at all. A possible solution is to ask the opponent to agree on this and that as being a fact, perhaps even before discussing any further. (And even then it may well be that both/all are wrong.) What will also help, is giving some sort of evidence, for example a reference to a trustworthy source, trusted by all who participate in the debate.
>>>>
>>>>That's the crux. I've yet to see such a situation here. The right will not accept as trustworthy any source trusted by the left and the left will likewise not accept any source trusted by the right. Maybe there is such a source out there, but following the discussions that have gone on here over time, I despair of ever seeing it. I realise that right and left are not fixed terms, but I think you understand what I'm getting at.
>>>
>>>Left and right... You know, I've always been on the left side. Ir was only some years ago that I started to realize that so many of my beloved left friends showed a severe lack of respect for right wing thinkers and showed an even more severe overestimtion of their own ideas. I must admit that this also was true for me personally. I had always got that idea that right wing thinkers are driven by insincere, egoistical motives that cannot possibly win in a correct debate. And that left wing thinkers are driven by noble motives that will easilly win in a correct debate.
>>>
>>>I have come to the conclusion that the truth is that too many left wing thinkers are thinking along unlogical paths, defending poorly constructed ideologies and attacking decision makers on false grounds. And that at least some right wing thinkers do have logically constructed ideologies that are not necessarilly egoistical.
>>>
>>>I'm still a left winger, I think, but I no longer see right wingers as enemies. I see them rather as people who also strive towards a better world, but think that another route is better. And those right wingers who are not merely egoistical, appear to show a realism that I only sparsely see in left wingers. In this respect, left wingers can learn from right wingers.
>>
>>
>>Good message. I think there are extremists on both sides who discredit the broad definitions of "left" and "right." There are many more IMO who are somewhere in the middle, sometimes on one side of the line and sometimes on the other. At this point I would be delighted with a U.S. President who talks straight and makes sense, no matter what party.
>
>I fully agree. End of discussion? :)


We should be so lucky ;--)