We have a new blog up at AOL (The Young Turks). So does Power Line -- a conservative blog for those of you lucky enough to be unfamiliar. We both started on AOL recently and we immediately got into a debate. It was on Jose Padilla.
I put up a post there about how the government conveniently lost the tape of his last interrogation. Paul Hinderaker immediately attacked me as "hysterical," "ludicrous" and "silly." Sounds fun so far.
Then we got into a long back and forth between me, Hinderaker and Paul Mirengoff, also of Power Line. Then their readers piled in and made even more over the top comments.
There is even a poll up at AOL now about who is winning the debate. And the Power Line readers are very proud that they got there first, so they are "winning" in the poll.
Here are some of the lessons I learned from the whole thing:
- Conservatives don't accept any facts. If they don't like it, they won't agree to it, no matter how indisputable.
- They have absolutely no sense of humor. There is a standard talking point for everything, as we all know, and the talking point for any brush with humor is "that is really juvenile." Quickly followed up by, "I guess if you can't compete intellectually with us, this is what you have to resort to." Clever.
- All liberals are fill-in the blank. It's going to be one of about 18 standard insults: emotional, ridiculous, soft, weak, paranoid, don't have the facts, believe anything the terrorist will say, want to let the terrorist take over this country, etc. etc. There is almost never an actual argument, it's always a fill in the blank attack.
Now, here comes the part where I'm naive. I think that maybe we can get past this, now that we have both called each other ridiculous names and all attempts at presenting evidence or exhibiting levity have failed.
I have asked them to answer some basic questions about the case to see if we can even have a real discussion. What do you guys think? Am I wasting my time? Is it hopeless? Or is there some chance that after we get through the initial round of locking horns that we can power through and actually have a real conversation?
Has anyone ever been persuaded on the internet? Or are we all just doing this for our own entertainment and satisfaction?
Are there conservatives willing to listen? And if so, are they online?
I am genuinely interested to see if this will work. Also, I want to know what your experiences have been? Do you think it will work? Can we actually have a conversation on the web with the other side or will it always just be yelling at each other?
Thanks for your input.
The Young Turks