Excellent Advice?

Haha.....

A perfect example of what the OP is talkin abt.
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Here's the problem.

Web forums are populated by human beings, and human beings are flawed.

And, though there are generally rules prohibiting vulgar language and insulting attacks, there are no such rules prohibiting the dispensing of bad advice and absurd opinions.

I have, over the years, offered helpful advice, and I have also served up a double-helping of seriously flawed advice and outrageous opinions.

Free speech.
It's free.

 

Objectivity requires an open mind.

 

Yep you see plenty of this here and yes it's recently been on the rise.

it's indicative of the general trend of strong division- staunchly held opposing beliefs (and utter disbelief that the other perspective has anything of value to offer) within our society

 

While the humorous responses are fun and welcome, particularly these days, I do see what Marc's OP is describing. I think sometimes folks don't read the OP carefully and jump in with a comment before really "getting" what the original point is all about. The last decade or so lot's of folks seem to have ever diminishing attention spans when it comes to reading the written word. Sadly it seems that much of the time if you can't get your point across in the first sentence or 2 you've lost your reader. Like I probably have here...

What the hell, get the Twin!

 

You are absolutely on point here.

People hurriedly scan texts, emails, and forum posts and draw a hasty conclusion as to what was said, that as often as not is entirely incorrect. You see it all the time, and add to that the fact that here, often people read the subject line and simply post without reading any responses, so therefore missing that they are repeating information (often with an air of being quite pleased with themselves for their "original" thought on the matter).

Also, how many times have you seen the scenario of say, some celebrity dying, and we get multiple posts about it here? With seemingly people not caring to bother to check first to see whether it's already been posted...

It just all cumulatively points to a very consumer-based mentality, with little regard for your fellow posters, and a complete lack of online courtesty, which of course I do realize is an oxymoron of the highest order