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Exalting Curiosity

(98 Posts)
thatbags Mon 08-Feb-16 06:38:28

Article by Harry Dreyfus about engaging with views you might dislike. Arguing, discussing, listening is good.

rosesarered Thu 11-Feb-16 20:13:48

If my back could take sitting on hard chairs in meeting halls,then I would go and listen to politicians from all parties, if they were interesting enough. Corbyn and friends excepted, also Farage.

rosesarered Thu 11-Feb-16 20:09:39

POGS has just posted a quite reasonable explanation, which was demanded of her by another poster. Nowt rude about that.

rosesarered Thu 11-Feb-16 20:07:03

I was just thinking the same as you thatbags.

thatbags Thu 11-Feb-16 18:30:13

Did you used to have a different username, obi? Don't worry, I'm not asking what it was; I'm just surprised you know those two facts about me when your username is relatively new to me so I had assumed you were a relatively new gransnetter. You don't come across as the sort of poster I'd fail to notice smile

obieone Thu 11-Feb-16 10:11:36

Explains why you never feel insulted. And have nothing against any freedom of speech.

obieone Thu 11-Feb-16 10:09:29

Of course it is rude. Very rude.
Surprised you cant see it. Interesting.

thatbags Thu 11-Feb-16 09:48:57

Your post isn't rude, pogs.

dj, you asked; pogs explained.

One can be open to views without ever wanting to vote for the person(s) holding said views. At present I think I can say I won't ever vote for Corbyn either. I'm still interested in what he has to say and, who knows, if his pragmatism improves and he becomes, in my view, a better politician (no, I'm not saying he's a bad one right now, just not good enough for my purposes; I'm more of a moderate than he is), I might change my mind.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 23:44:47

There's no need to be so bloody rude!!!!
Pardon me for showing interest in your reasoning.

POGS Wed 10-Feb-16 23:40:42

DJ

He was a new local candidate for the last General Election. So at the time Miliband would have been the PM had Labour got in. I have no idea if he was what you call Socialist Labour/New Labour but he did not go under Labour CO OP. I obviously had to elect an MP who was not only standing for Westminster but my local area and I wanted to hear what he had to say. Now you and others obviously do not understand that concept but a lot of the electorate are interested in hearing more than one bloody minded opinioin.

You bring up Corbyn. I mentioned Corbyn in response to another personal question by Eloethan who , I will be polite in saying, dictated my reason for attending which ironically just proved the point that single minded, prejudiced views are held by some to the extent they feel they and only they know what another persons motives are. Corbyn and Liz Kendall were mentioned by myself to give an example that runs with the theme of the thread, do we / can we assume to know peoples thoughts because of our own bigotry/bias. He was not mentioned to get into yet another argument with you nor anybody else.!!!

If anybody cares to bore themselves witless they will note I mentioned the fact I attended his meeting initially to give an example of what the thread Links were trying to debate and by giving a personal example I was showing the stupidity, naivity, prejudiced opinion of making an assumption that the mere fact somebody attends a meeting DOES NOT mean they are neccessarily a supporter , there are other factors that may give a plausible reason as to why they attended.

If the thread is turned to be about Dreyfuss and myself having attended a political meeting then to be honest it just detracts from the reasoned thought behind the thread/OP as both Dreyfuss and myself are examples of behaviour , the thread is not whether or not we personally support the person we went to hear.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 21:23:39

I wondered if it was a new labour or a socialist labour, or labour coop candidate.
It's just that you said we should all be open to all views, then that you wouldn't ever vote for Corbyn.
You would only ever be able to vote for Corbyn if you lived in his constituency.
What you actually mean, I think, is that you would not vote for a real socialist.
Is that right?

POGS Wed 10-Feb-16 20:31:28

DJ

Why do you want to know who I went to see?

Elegran Wed 10-Feb-16 11:05:46

Some people don't like a meaning being inferred from their posts which wasn't there, obieone

Would you like to come and sit at my laptop and type my posts for me. dj? It would save me an awful lot of time, and you would then get exactly what you thought I would say. No need to insert your own bias into it then.

Elegran Wed 10-Feb-16 11:00:53

And stop trying to hector me into agreeing with YOUR interpretation of MY post.

obieone Wed 10-Feb-16 10:59:53

You lot really dont get on.

Elegran Wed 10-Feb-16 10:59:25

Stop being so literal and see the universality of my post, dj No mention of or reference to any specific single-minded pursuit of one system was made or implied.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 10:58:21

You still haven't answered my question.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 10:57:29

It can also give you a heart attack!

Elegran Wed 10-Feb-16 10:55:31

A touch of salt helps bring out the flavour, dj Things can get very stodgy without.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 10:49:24

I thought the whole point of this thread was that it was serious, not tongue in cheek.

durhamjen Wed 10-Feb-16 10:48:03

The implication is that you see POGS as one of those people who see people who agree with Corbyn as alien beings. Is that right?

Elegran Wed 10-Feb-16 10:03:32

dj My "alien beings" were from the tongue-in-cheek imaginary point of view of someone who was firmly and irrevocably committed to one side and would see a conference of "the others" as a nest of alien beings (or maybe a nest of vipers)

Such people do exist, and some of them regard members of parties whose views and policies are diametrically opposite to their own as less than human.

obieone Wed 10-Feb-16 07:28:53

Plus people lie. Unless you know a person well, there is not a lot of "evidence" to an opposite conclusion sometimes.

obieone Wed 10-Feb-16 07:25:24

No one can stop someone else jumping to conclusions. No point the man's son or anyone else moaning about it.

durhamjen Tue 09-Feb-16 23:03:34

Who are you calling alien beings, Elegran?

durhamjen Tue 09-Feb-16 23:02:01

Who did you go and see, POGS?