I had considered posting this to the religion thread, but due to the nature of this video I felt that it deserved it's own topic. Recently this video showed up on the front page of Reddit, and I have to say it is one of the most refreshing things I've seen in a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNgCMoyUc0s
What stood out to me was the sheer level of respect with which this discussion was carried out. For 22 whole minutes these men, who have widely different views on religion, maintain a civilized, considerate dialogue that is absent of any yelling, name calling, race baiting, or stereotyping. This right here, this is what we need more of.
Within the swirling vortex of identity politics, race relations, social justice warriors, and university protests, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find instances of civilized debate and open-mindedness. Actual open-mindedness, not what people spout off when change is happening in their favor. It is difficult to find any sort of rational disagreement that doesn't divulge into a shouting match or straw man fallacy, but instead involves people who are willing to consider, really consider, where another person is coming from.
It's cases like this that demonstrate the proper method behind arguing effectively. Namely that half the battle is just shutting up and letting the person who disagrees with you speak their mind. I personally like this video, and I don't quite understand the dislike ratio. Either way, it reminds me that there are still rational human beings willing to start a dialogue.
As a side note, for some reason every time I click on the video it jumps to about 6 minutes in. Not sure why, but if that happens just scroll to the beginning.