Emotional Topics

Every body knows that there are certain topics that should be avoided when you are talking to a diverse group of people. They are politics, religion, sex, abortion and guns. There are probably others but those 5 are the ones that I have been taught to avoid like the plague. The reason of course is that these are emotional topics. You can almost never have a reasonable conversation with someone of an opposing view point on an emotional topic. You both have a strong opinion and react emotionally when ever you sense that it is being challenged. For that reason, when you are talking to or with a large , diverse group, you avoid those topics.

The internet is a diverse group. In fact it may comprise the single largest diverse group in the entire world. Even it's small subgroups and forums can be large and diverse. I am a member of one yahoo group that claims it has over 6000 members. Only about 2 dozen people post to it regularly but there are apparently a lot of us lurkers out there. Because these groups are so large and diverse, most of them have a ground rule that prohibits discussions that involve the aforementioned emotional topics. The obvious exceptions are groups where one or more of the emotional topics are the stated subject of interest of the group itself.

Lately, I have noticed that there is a new subject that is being discussed more and more and every time it comes up, it is just like a discussion of one of the 5 emotional topics I mentioned previously. That topic is anthropogenic global warming (AGW). You would think that something with roots in data that can be observed scientifically like AGW could be discussed logically without emotion to a point where some general concensus could be reached, but believe me, it ain't happening. If you dare to question any of the claims made by Mr Gore in his book, you will be swarmed on like someone who kicked a yellowjacket nest. After seeing this happen repeatedly, I thought about suggesting to group moderators to include AGW as a 6th emotional topic to be prohibited, but the more that I think about it, I don't think we need to add a 6th topic. We just need to realize that for some people, AGW has become a religion and as such is already prohibited from discussion.