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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (93044)	4/12/2003 9:05:10 PM
From: kumar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I would be interested to know if others have found another thread anywhere that compares to this one. Internet newsgroups. but its lot less structured than here. Anyone can say pretty much anything they want.

To: LindyBill who wrote (93044)	4/12/2003 9:08:20 PM
From: E	Respond to of 281500

I haven't heard of one. I know a disabled person who spends a lot of time on the New York Times discussion forums, and they have a PM function so some friendships seem to form as offshoots of discussions. But I gather it's different. For example, the conversations are more focused. They talk about a specific book, for example, or a column. It's not as personal, though it can be heated. This is what I'm told.

To: LindyBill who wrote (93044)	4/12/2003 9:09:42 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 281500

I have a lot of difficulty explaining this thread to people I know. Ditto. I try to tell them how much I learn from trying to think through my arguments, let alone read the materials to address the arguments, let alone read material I would never have imagined was out there, let alone skip all the National Review/Weekly Standard stuff (whoops, take that back, I would never do that;-) nah). But the Pollack book turned a lot of heads. We all recognize just how hard it is to get straightforward argument, unspun if you please, and Pollack offered that. Now, it's more likely to be, what have you read lately. Some read the Keppel; many have read the Doran materials. All my favorites. I would be interested to know if others have found another thread anywhere that compares to this one. Not really. I thought the G&K SI thread in its very best incarnations was close, maybe even better in some ways. More a sense of common purpose in those good moments. I was on a series of Compuserve forums in the late 80s discussing Macintosh computers. Over time we grew to be sufficiently comfortable with one another to branch out into political discussions which not only proved helpful but got one of my students at the time into law school. Serendepity.