Groupthink is not appealing to me; never has been, never will be. So far, with Superbious not appealing to any one groupthink, so good. There's none of that company line towing to be had here, which is a far cry from the usual trope found in opinion publications & the like.
S
ometime after Superbious launched, I wanted to help spread the word about us through networking. I did try a few, but given the responses I got, they collectively can be summed up as "I don't agree with some of the folks on there, so I won't network with your site." Keep in mind, this site is definitely not mine; it's all of ours. But that reason I previously stated (which wasn't a verbatim quote) is so childish, so black & white that I'm glad I don't share it. Open-mindedness is less prevalent than you'd think amongst venues like ours, and thus I'm grateful for it being present here.
I don't always agree with some of the guys & gals on here, and I'll name drop two of them in particular:
Keyboard Cowboy & even more so,
Arthur Brewer. In doing what I just did, I'm not here to shame anyone. I'm just stating outright that while I don't always agree with those two for the most part, Brewer most of all, I don't have any grudges about populating the same forum. We're here to express our views after all, and preferential treatment is anathema to open dialog. I also refuse to bow down to any one mindset, and I urge anyone who reads this to follow my example.
When political dialog springs up, very little good comes of it when you look past the fact that dialog needs to be spoken (or written) in the first place. Contention, dissent, vilification – all of these things come into play at one point or another. It's a shame that these reactions are such common occurrences where these discussions exist. Indeed, there seems to be minor blips of that same attitude here, though indirect as it may be being in the form of editorial pieces. Why can't more opinion publications engage in this kind of open dialog, where sometimes obstinate moods virtually restrict any kind of dissenting opinion?
P
erhaps it's the way of the Dodo bird, or always has been, to open the floodgates to all kinds of ideas and positions in forums where opinion is interchanged with opinion, idea is interchanged with idea, with permutations of both. All of that is for the purpose of understanding viewpoints different from our own. Even debate, as fruitless as it is when you consider that the more passionate, more vocal of us are stubborn bastards, shouldn't be a sour note for anyone in places like our own Superbious.com.
Who am I kidding? We should just tow the line or get the f*ck out.