Has DU been a tremendous learning experience for you?

[NNN0LHI]

It has been for me. I have also learned to completely respect other people who have thoughts and ideas that are polar opposites of my own. I don't think I would have ever been able to do that without DU.

Even DUers I continue to argue and debate with regularly I still respect the hell out of them. Its true. Complete and utter respect for someone I don't agree with. Imagine that.

Don

[silverojo]

1. It definitely has

You learn so much here, that you'll never find in the MSM.

[tom_paine]

2. I respect those who disagree with me, but I will NEVER have any patience with Sneer and Smearers

How can you respect someone who won't spek except to insult?

But yes, in terms of understanding that all who disagree with me aren't Sneer and Smear (far from it) was something I didn't fully get until the mods tombstoned me for awhile way back when.

Even now, I can sometimes forget and get hot under the collar and erbally balst someone who didn't deserve it.

But you know what, on the occasions when that happens the person who I spoke to, if they aren't a Sneer and Smearer, usually replies with more civility than I sometimes deserved in the first place because of mistakenly losing my temper at someone who didn't deserve it.

But that doesn't often happen these last couple years.

In any case, my answer to your question is "yes".

[redqueen]

3. Ah c'mon... who said no? Why?

I don't know how it could not be a tremendous learning experience.

[Misc]

4. Umm...

I would say that so far it has been a learning experience for me, but not in the way that you say. More in the type of crass jokes and unfounded statements that people will make in order to get a point across or take down a public figure that they dislike.

[redqueen]

13. Hi there.

Welcome to DU.

[slackmaster]

5. Yes, people who probably act normal in real life can be total assholes online

Major education.

[Dora]

6. For better and worse, as they say. nt

[Dr.Phool]

7. I knew everything before I got here.

I'm just sharing my wisdom now.

:evilgrin:

[EFerrari]

9. Nice post, Mao.

:rofl:

[Quantess]

8. Not enough poll choices.

We have to choose between "tremendous" and "not".
How about a noteworthy learning experience?

[bobthedrummer]

10. It certainly has. The archives here are truly a world-class "special collection".

Speaking of world-class, so are many DUers, past and present.
:)

[bellasgrams]

11. I've learned there are a lot of people who

like to use profanity.

[redqueen]

14. Do you not own a television set?

:shrug:

[BlueJazz]

12. Shoot..when I started at DU, I couldn't even spell it....Now I can...

....almost spell intellagent purrson.

[H2O Man]

15. Yes, absolutely.

I've had the pleasure of being exposed to the insight of people who know a lot of things in areas that I was unfamilar. It's one of the great things about DU.

[monmouth]

16. I rarely questioned anything, I have learned from the Pros how to do that...I love DU..

[MedleyMisty]

17. An emphatic yes

I was just reading the thread about black kids who study being accused of "acting white".

There were so many different viewpoints, and many of them were presented with intelligence. Admittedly I didn't read the whole thread and when I scrolled through I think I saw an entire subthread that just said "Ignored", but from what I saw it didn't have that many flames and had more actual sharing and debating.

I have always had a burning curiosity to know what was going on behind other people's eyes. DU lets me see that. Admittedly it's just on occasion when the flames aren't raging, but it's worth it to get that occasional glimpse.

[Mike03]

18. Unquestionably

I can't even begin to articulate how much I've learned about issues I had no conception of before they were explored on this website.

I've also had my mind on issues changed--practically every week there is some very important issue discussed, and the depth of the discussion leads me to reconsider my stance on an issue. Just in the last week I've probably reconsidered three issues based on discourse on DU.