Thoughts on maximizing dialog in the Forum.

The Forum  encourages dialog by posing issues for discussion.  The intent is to avoid the inherently divisive letter exchanges we see so often posted as "Letters to the Editor".  By posing a topic one avoids the trap of having the start of the thread more often than not be a dismissive  disagreement.   But human nature being what it is responses to any controversial topic are more often than not very one sided and end up not encouraging dialog.

In thinking about how to maximize dialog within the forum - I was reminded of a teaching from Jewish Torah study which posits that the best student is he who poses the best ( most thoughtful ) question.  With this in mind I wonder of we could not encourage dialog by instead of simply selecting a controversial issue we go the next level - posit that there is an problem that needs solution -  and pose a question as to what might be means to a solution.

As an example take the issue of  the Biden election and claims of voting fraud.  It struck me that accepting that voter fraud certainly  can be an problem and posing a question as to what changes in voting systems would strengthen the integrity of our electoral process might generate dialog.  We all like to claim insights into solution so perhaps the dialog would inherenty start on a positive note.

Another example is the observation that social media has certainly propogated unfounded conspiracy theories on both sides of many issues.  Rather than simply asking for discussion on the problem try to get people to  discuss means to control and abate false and usually hateful media publication without violation of free speech.

David Friedman