Destroying Discourse - A Weapon for Social Terrorism

The most productive tool in fighting social conflict, in reality or online, is constructive interaction. Some people will call it negotiation, diplomacy, discussion and engagement. Others will call it coercion, capitulation, co-opting or submission.  Invariably one side, or both, stands to lose something by reaching an understanding or détente. Sabotaging the dialogue or setting down unreasonable tangential arguments that prevent the real issues from being discussed is an effective way to prevent anything constructive from happening. 

Years ago on a visit to England, after a few pints, I discovered myself deep in a debate about the advantages of having the steering wheel on the right or left side of the car. The debate was serious, it was ironic and it was impassioned. We argued how it involved history, culture, industrialism, imperialism – with people I hardly knew – and no one got called a Nazi or a moron. In the end we agreed that in another 100 years it wouldn't matter because robots would be doing all the driving. It was great. I never looked at arguing the same. 

If you want to prevent discovery, agreement and truth or promote discord and distortion, it is not very hard. It is much harder to earnestly negotiate, be prepared to sacrifice and possibly build something new and unknown.