Post #561153 by woofmutt on Fri, Oct 22, 2010 9:46 PM

"As for society today, when there is outcry at any topic that makes anyone uncomfortable and should just not be talked about openly."

In regards to society today I rarely see an "outcry" made from intelligent people regarding an actual discussion of a topic.

The exception to that is when it's fairly certain that the discussion will degrade from an argument of ideas to a fight over opinions. Fighting over a topic almost never yields anything of value.

However there are a lot of subjects which make people uncomfortable to discuss (such as sex, religion, politics, how much money you make, etc) and it's just rude to bring them up.

That's different than calling a sexist on his/her sexism or pointing out a person's radically hypocritical behavior. The guy who espouses minimal water usage but drains and refills his Olympic size pool every day would probably be uncomfortable if his level of water usage was brought up but I think it would be a valid subject to address.

"As for myself I am offended by overt racism & sexism but think these topics should be discussed in public forum..."

In the right time and place there's nothing wrong with discussing such topics. My friends and I do it all the time when we're together. But if I had brought up the sexism last week while at a brunch with a bunch of my friends' distant relatives who I had just met it would have been rather rude (and odd) of me.

"We need more dialog, not less! Even if it may be uncomfortable to some."

I agree. But Tiki central is not the place for such dialog. We can barely discuss whether something is Tiki or not without people taking their toys and leaving forever.

As has been addressed on Tiki Central many times before there are numerous other sites on the Internet to discuss racism, sexism, politics, Jimmy Buffet, religion, and countless other subjects which often get people so riled up they lose control of their finger tips and post whatever barely crosses their minds.

Just because a subject isn't being talked about it doesn't mean people are oblivious or blind to the subject. It could mean that it's just not the right time or place to discuss it.