The things we agree

[Ketraar]

In this time of alternative facts and the claickbait news, I wondered how is it that we can get to a point in near future where people can have a starting place as to what constitutes common ground. Does it exist at all?

So here I thought maybe we could do a different thing this time and list things that we know we agree on. And yes maybe there is always the one person that disagrees on anything, but I think these can be safely ignored. So I'll start with an easy one.

- The Earth is round.

MFG

Ketraar

[Mightysword]

And yes maybe there is always the one person that disagrees on anything,
...

Let me be that person then ...

- The Earth is round.

MFG

Ketraar

It is not, it's an oblate spheroid. Nothing to do with alternate fact though, theory proposed by Newton and than later scientifically proven.

[felter]

We are all born, we pay taxes and we die, the end

[Morkonan]

Love is important and beneficial, so long as it isn't false, abused or self-destructive.

Altruism is, generally, a positive quality.

Empathy is a good thing - The ability to understand the emotions or mental state of another, even if incomplete, is a necessary quality for an intelligent species.

Tyranny in anything, or the suborning of the will of another to suit one's own desires, is wrong. If, however, it is done for the good of another, to prevent another from harming themselves through ignorance or happenstance, then temporarily exerting dominance isn't wrong, as long as one's motivations are in their best interest.

A desire to seek agreement, compromise or mutual benefit, even if it means one must alter one's own beliefs or opinion in favor of new, more valid, information is, in general, a good thing. However, doing this too often makes one appear flighty or insincere - One must have some sort of stable and personal value system.

The Earth is sort of roundish...

The Earth and, thus, the Universe, may not be entirely what it appears to be at first glance... (A stretch for some, I know. )

[jlehtone]

We are all born, we pay taxes and we die, the end

Do all [native tribes, shady characters] pay? Paying taxes is in the same category as Earth being round.

[mrbadger]

Trump doesn't pay Taxes....

And I'm certain oblate is just a made up word, you can't trust mathematicians. They get all smug because their proofs are true for eternity, the gits.....

[pjknibbs]

And I'm certain oblate is just a made up word, you can't trust mathematicians.

If so, they made it up around 300 years ago, so I'd call it pretty much a fait accompli by now.

[Jericho]

- The Earth is round.

They got to you too huh?

'Big Globe' must be stopped.

At the height of my globe addiction, I was spending $600 a day buying globes. Everyone knows that Big Globe is just a CIA/Illuminati plot to trick us into the believing the Earth is round so that they can... Er... So...

It's a conspiracy. We're not supposed to know their reasons.



I think we can all agree that Coke is better than Pepsi.
... Unless you work for 'Big Cola' of course.... Do you?

[berth]

Trump doesn't pay Taxes....

And I'm certain oblate is just a made up word, you can't trust mathematicians. They get all smug because their proofs are true for eternity, the gits.....

Following on from this, how about "the square root of two is an irrational number"?

(proof)

[X2-Illuminatus]

- The Earth is round.

They got to you too huh?

'Big Globe' must be stopped.

At the height of my globe addiction, I was spending $600 a day buying globes. Everyone knows that Big Globe is just a CIA/Illuminati plot to trick us into the believing the Earth is round so that they can... Er... So...

It's a conspiracy. We're not supposed to know their reasons.

Even a flat disk is round.

[Usenko]

This message is transmitted via the Internet, and I am living in Australia.

[philip_hughes]

The Munsell color system projects onto an oblate spheroid. People run around on a field carrying an oblate spheroid. I have never seen the earth from a distance so i cannot comment on its shape. I do know that a lot of objects fall to earth and miss all the time.

[pjknibbs]

I think we can all agree that Coke is better than Pepsi.

Full fat? Definitely. Low calorie? Pepsi Max is better than any low calorie drink Coke produces.

[Tracker001]

This message is transmitted via the Internet, and I am living in Australia.

That is where the Internet is and we all have internet . So we all really live on Australia , meanning we don't live on the planet Earth . We live on the planet Australia . Australia being rather flat means we don't live on something round or oblate but on a relitivly flat surface , with Drop Bears .

[Ketraar]

Well guess "round" means something different than I thought it would. Is a sphere not round too? If not, what do you call something that has no edges but has no (particular) geometrical shape?

Also I think I meant this much more serious than what people are taking it, in the sense that I am really curious if we have something we agree on on a large enough scale that can be defined as agreed, thus are fact.

Here other examples (and also a small rant):

- Black and white are NOT colours.
- There are no races in the human species.

MFG

Ketraar

[berth]

Well guess "round" means something different than I thought it would. Is a sphere not round too? If not, what do you call something that has no edges but has no (particular) geometrical shape?

Also I think I meant this much more serious than what people are taking it, in the sense that I am really curious if we have something we agree on on a large enough scale that can be defined as agreed, thus are fact.

Here other examples (and also a small rant):

- Black and white are NOT colours.
- There are no races in the human species.

MFG

Ketraar

A circle is round (2 dimensional object)

A sphere is...spherical! (3 dim object)

but I think we all knew what you meant

[Alan Phipps]

Rationally speaking, we can all agree to disagree - except when we really want to have that argument of course!

[Mightysword]

Well guess "round" means something different than I thought it would. Is a sphere not round too? If not, what do you call something that has no edges but has no (particular) geometrical shape?

Also I think I meant this much more serious than what people are taking it, in the sense that I am really curious if we have something we agree on on a large enough scale that can be defined as agreed, thus are fact.

Well I was being (half) serious, but it's a good example to show why it's hard to agree on something without dismissing the other as non-fact. In most case it's because one party believe something is so simple (in this case your presumed definition of "round") and thus that one party would think there is no other alternative way to look at that one true fact. Turn out not so simple when enough detail is looked at. Like they said, the devil is in the detail

Just like your example of Black and White are not colors, depend on who you ask really, an artist, a chemist, or a physicist.

[RegisterMe]

Similarly the earth isn't a true sphere. Eg it's wider at the equator than it is north / south, and if you wanted to be pedantic it depends on your resolution, for instance mountain ranges / valleys.

You can't really have a conversation like this without ending up down a Betrand Russell rabbit hole .

[brucewarren]

Water is powerful wet stuff.