Every once in a while, a thread pops up where people go back and forth on a topic. Those involved seem to want the other person to agree with them, so the discussion becomes heated. Whether it's global warming, 9/11, alien abductions, etc, we tend to get drawn into long arguments that usually end up nowhere because it seems hard to change people's opinions.So why do we feel the need to have someone agree with our point of view?
You pose an important question involving every member of this forum, or anyone for that matter who finds aerial anomalies, and paranormal topics worthy of close inspection. I have arrived at the conclusion that the polarizing effects in these particular subjects are unequaled, and second to none. It appears as though there are forum members who have invested hundreds, if not thousands of hours researching these topics for a myriad of reasons. When you have a climate like this, it is to be expected that there will be heated discussions, or debates. I challenge any forum member to go knock on their closest neighbor’s door, and then explain where their fascination lie, while gauging their neighbor’s response. I am not aware of any other public forum in which discussions, or debates can occur involving persons who have heightened knowledge where these topics exist. Then there is the line of demarcation, which is at the point where entertainment collides with science, and serious discussion. As to your reference, citing the recent jousting match between two forum members, in the end, and in their own way, agreed to disagree, and are now off frolicking together, on another thread. My last thought involves interest in aerial anomalies, and the paranormal, in respect to psychology, and in relation to a comment posted by Facius_Cardan, on this thread.
“Cognition and Belief in Paranormal Phenomena” Gestalt/Feature-Intensive Processing Theory and Tendencies Toward ADHD, Depression, and Dissociation. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied. Volume 140, issue 6. ( I have included the abstract so that forum members can see how the mental health care profession views these topics. The keyword here is “Belief.”)
“Belief in paranormal phenomena and cryptids—unknown animals such as Bigfoot—may predispose individuals to interpret real-world objects and events in the same way that eyewitness identification can be biased by unrelated information (P. James & N. Thorpe, 1999). Psychological tendencies toward attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dissociation, and depression, even at subclinical levels, may be associated systematically with particular paranormal or cryptozoological beliefs. The authors evaluated these psychological tendencies using the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales ©. K. Conners, D. Erhardt, & E. Sparrow, 1999), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (L. Coleman & J. Clark, 1999), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (A. T. Beck, 1996). They performed regression analyses against beliefs in ghosts, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), extrasensory perception (ESP), astrology, and cryptids. ADHD, dissociation, and depression were associated with enhanced tendencies toward paranormal and cryptozoological beliefs, although participants who believed in each of the phenomena differed from one another in predictable and psychologically distinguishable ways. Cognitively biasing influences of preexisting psychological tendencies may predispose individuals to specific perceptual and cognitive errors during confrontation of real-world phenomena.”
On the other hand I also have to realize that "winning the argument" by being louder or pounding somebody into submission doesn't make you right.