Sadly, too many see public discourse as a fight.....and will pick a fight over damn near anything. I used to try to engage the way you describe, but I got spat in the eye too many times and I stopped. It just wasn't worth the effort anymore.
It can be tough, all it takes is one troll. But great posters can create an understanding.
It would hugely improve our public discourse if people treated online conversation as a genuine exchange of ideas rather than a confrontation to be 'won' at the earliest opportunity with theatrics and debaters' points.
If we're ever going to solve the existential problems humanity faces (which I am not at all hopeful about) then cooperation will be required. Building up cults and power centres around self-interested charlatans/deluded ideologues with severe personality defects is not the answer. Although it's in their interests for you to believe otherwise and requires a lot less effort.
Isn't it interesting that a mere boxing discussion group can reflect the whole of humanity? One problem with technology, like drones and the internet, is people no longer have to engage when committing an act of violence, or espousing a Point of View. Violence, brutal as it is, has an intimate element in the experience of the body coming apart, blood spurting, the feelings associated with the experience. If I use a knife I have to experience these elements, they are not abstract associations. Even the worse cold blooded psychopath has to assume some sense of responsibility in experiencing the consequence of his/her actions. It makes most normal people think and often reconsider. As they say, "A well armed society is a polite society."
When people debated, settled verbal conflicts, it was similar. Things to be taken care of were spoken words directly, or acts perpetrated directly. Today people can make enemies anonomously, people whom would never dare confront another have free reign to do so on the intrawebs. It has made people insensative, irresponsible, and unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.
Another stand out quote from the article I posted earlier is below. The unusual quick turnaround fight in London against Botha was obviously meant for Ruiz to fulfill his WBA obligation. That's how much Lewis thought of that 'challenge'. Ruiz was going to get his shot, but of course the court case wasn't about that but about Don King regaining control of a heavyweight belt.
Lewis has made plans to face Ruiz, an American, in London in July to comply with the WBA directive, according to Lewis' promoter, Panos Eliades.
Vits was never the champion, so there was nothing to strip unless you count the cartoon belt. Lewis fought the best. Vits ducked a Byrd rematch that could have made him a lineal champ and 28 other top ten contenders during his time. He also signed to fight Rahman, backed out and never tried to make that fight again. But hey, let's get on Lennox for retiring a winner!!!
- - Only thing U know about ducking is U IQ got ducked at birth...dum and dummer and dummerest...
More reporting on this period. The July date was definitely for Ruiz originally and not Botha. It seems the only way Lewis could have avoided what happened would have been to cancel the Grant fight.
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