It is a concerning development for a society to make. Critical thinking and reason are skills that need to be developed within the population rather than bland and blind acceptance of received information.

Yesterday I had an exchange with a writer, the whole premise of his article was ‘white people are always the ones that commit mass shootings’ – I tried to point out there is no statistical relationship between race and mass shooting when you correct for population percentage. Yes, he replied…. ‘But it always seems to be white men.’ – I suggested this was correct for the same reason that most fraud in China is done by Asians.

Then I was accused of being a white supremacist and supporting the overthrow of government by radical Incels. When I pointed out that I was totally fine with the idea of white supremacy and high incidence of Incels in mass shooters but these were different issues and not relevant he told me I was delusional.

When I pointed out that demonstrably false inflammatory rhetoric allows entire arguments to be dismissed by skilful opposition – and might do more harm than good – I was once again accused of being a white supremacist and blocked. It’s like debating with articulate toddlers.

Thanks for your comment. I may start writing articles about these off the beaten track debates. They need a light shining on them. Only us animals have debate skills it would seem. We need a menagerie of reason!