Can we make MN less hostile?

[Szdfan]

2018 / P.1:

So, what are some ways you will be the change you want to see?

i appreciate Robert’s 2 things which are 5. i’ve tried to incoporate them into my everyday thinking.

I think most of us have participated in the hostility on MN. I didn't think the Robinson thread was hostile, I do think you got pushback and I think some of it is legitmate, but that's my perception. I think we should all pay attention to our own behavior and how it contributes to making MN hostile.

[Bootstrap]

From the OP:

Can we make MN a less hostile place? Can we make it a more useful place to discuss things and learn from each other? What would a better MN look like?

Let's discuss. And while we discuss, can we please avoid insulting each other, directly or indirectly, aggressively or passive-aggressively? Let's not discuss who is to blame, let's try to describe the problem and possible solutions.

Here's why I requested that: one way to be hostile is to accuse other people of hostility and pin blame on "the other side". I think we need to assume and expect disagreement, but disagreement does not need to be hostility.

One way to reduce hostility is to avoid seeing everything as hostility.

^^This challenging topic brought out .. hostilities. (When mutual understanding was the goal.)
This topic proved hard to stay on topic.

I actually don't see hostility in that thread. I do see disagreement. But the exercise is designed in a way that invites people to struggle - in a constructive way, I think.

“NC LT. Governor Nominee Mark Robinson (R)”
viewtopic.php?t=2747&start=30
P.3-4, with CNN featured+quoted+quoted (against forum guidelines) this topic has brought out .. hostilities, accusations.

Again, I do not think it is hostile to say that a politician has credible accusations against him. And I don't think it is helpful to portray that as hostility. If people want to start threads to discuss individual politicians, I would expect a range of views in that thread. None of us here is Mark Robinson.

[Szdfan]

I actually don't see hostility in that thread. I do see disagreement. But the exercise is designed in a way that invites people to struggle - in a constructive way, I think

I think that's an important point -- disagreement, even frustrating disagreement -- is not in itself hostility. I think some of the participants are making a good faith effort to disagree well with each other.