Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Disappointed with Georgetown" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster, in a fairly lengthy post, describes his visit to Georgetown University with his son who is conducting a number of college visits. The original poster applied to and was accepted by Georgetown 30 years ago. However, presented with a better financial aid package by an unidentified liberal arts college, the original poster chose the other school instead. The original poster says that he felt "a sense of longing" as they approached the Georgetown campus, but was almost immediately let down. He was not impressed with the campus, bothered by the noise of airplanes, and intimidated by the competitiveness of admissions. Similarly, his son ended the tour with little enthusiasm for the university, saying that if he could be accepted by Georgetown, he could probably be accepted by somewhere better as well. The original poster then provided his own opinions about Georgetown which boil down to what the school has to offer not justifying its cost and the competitiveness of its admissions. Among those who responded are posters who had similar reactions to the university. On the other hand are posters who attended the school and who suggest that the original poster doesn't understand the strengths that Georgetown offers. Nearly every aspect of the original poster's opinion of Georgetown is disputed. That includes the airplane noise which several posters denied is a problem. This thread reached 18 pages in less than 24 hours so clearly posters have strong feelings about the school. But, I don't have time to read that many posts so this is as much of a summary as I can provide.

The second most active thread yesterday was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Preparing for a trump reelection", the original poster says that she hopes that former President Donald Trump is not reelected, but she fears that he will be and wonders how others are preparing for such an eventuality. Nobody bothers with her question, but instead argue about her presumption that Trump will regain the presidency. Many posters strongly disagree with the original poster that Trump is likely to win. Almost immediately the thread deteriorated in to a debate between Trump and Biden supporters with each side simply repeating the same old talking points. I didn't read much of the thread, but one thing that struck me from what I did read is how much "Trump orthodoxy" has been absorbed by the conservatives posting on DCUM. The claim that Biden did not win the election is expressed as fact by Republicans and repeated allegations that Democrats support "open borders" are made. At some point it is a fair question to ask what value posters such as these bring to the forum. If the posters really believe, for instance, that Trump won the election but was cheated out of it, there is really no use trying to discuss anything with them. They are simply impervious to fact. If they don't believe it but are arguing the point nonetheless, they are little more than trolls and similarly not worth debating. MAGA posters cry endlessly about not being treated fairly in the forum, but more and more I fail to see any utility in giving them fair treatment. If MAGAs want to live in their reality, they are free to do so. But, DCUM is not that reality so there is not really a place for them here.

Third was a thread titled, "Irrationally angry at my teen daughter and having trouble forgiving" which was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum. The original poster and her husband, who have been married for twenty years, have had a longstanding disagreement about where to live. The original poster's husband wants to move across the country to be closer to his aging parents while the original poster wants to stay here. While arguing about this a couple of months ago, they discussed getting a divorce. They have four children and one of them, a teenager, overheard them. The teenager stated her opinion that they should move and said that if they got divorced, she would move with her father. The original poster is understandably upset by her daughter's comments. She outlined a number of practical reasons for not moving and generally seems to think that her daughter was not well-enough informed to have offered an opinion. Moreover, relations between the original poster and this child appear to be strained in the best of times. The result is that the original poster continues to be angry about the incident and has engaged in petty acts of retaliation against her daughter. She wants to know how to put all of this behind her. Many of those who respond are sympathetic to the original poster, but they are glad that she recognizes the problems with her behavior. Several suggest that she start therapy. Quite a few other posters side with the husband and/or daughter. They either ignore the practical reasons for not moving or simply don't consider them to be important. As a result, many of the practical reasons end up being subject to debate as posters argue their importance. The original poster responded a couple of times and was appreciative of the input and appears to be considering much of it seriously.

The final thread at which I'll look today was, like the first of today's threads, posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Titled, "Parents- nix these behaviors in your kids before they go to college", the original poster — who has been a college professor for 24 years — lists a number of issues that he thinks parents should address before their kids go off to college. I have two kids in college, one a freshman, so I was looking forward to some pearls of wisdom. Sadly, I was left disappointed. Either my wife and I have done an exceptionally good job parenting (doubtful), or there was not anything very enlightening in the poster's list. Basically, we have almost everything he mentioned covered. There were a few things he described about which I would quibble, but mostly what he listed is common sense. Many posters had reactions similar to mine. Others took the opportunity to offer suggestions to the professor in exchange. Fairly quickly the thread turned into a gripe fest with college professors bashing students and parents criticizing professors. One parent agreed with the professor's list but requested patience for her child who has ADHD/ASD. This resulted in a number of responses — I believe from other parents rather than professors — questioning whether her child should even be in college in the first place or whether the original post was directed at her. Several parents unleashed harsh criticisms of college professors as well as teachers at other levels. It's likely that the DCUM college forum is self-selected in a manner that it is not the best audience for the professor's suggestions. Those who participate in the college forum are more than likely fairly diligent about preparing their kids for college. Generally the kids described in discussions seem fairly well-prepared. Otherwise there would not be so much discussion about Ivy League or other selective college admissions. Though I could see a few of them taking it upon themselves to contact professors on their children's behalf, one of the things the professor would like to see nixed.