Reblogged this on Balaji TS' world-view of telecom and commented:
I would like to believe that I am brave (Bravery is one of the traits that has received so many “Like” clicks down the ages, who wouldn’t?). But there are two other traits too that are needed to communicate on social media, I guess – choice of words and patience.

I have been in some online debates – especially ones in which I critique some actions of an elected official, there are a number of people who try to counter my view. These are presumably supporters of the elected official’s published policies and close enough to know the policy’s intent.

They believe that I am not informed and try to educate me, typically. But soon, they get to a level of debate that questions personal choices & makes silly comparisons, sometimes without facts! For e.g. while I would talk about a potential harmful outcome I the future, they would talk about some past when similar policy lead to the same harmful outcome and ask me why I did not complain then. They would argue that since I bore the outcome then, I should not complain now.

Choice of words had to be careful in responding to these kind of arguments else the debaters soon descend into large scale personal attacks. The choice of words comes from the second attribute I have listed – patience!

And to be patient, one needs to be brave… Am I going in circles? 🙂