I have several people blocked on here because all they seemed to do anywhere I kept seeing them was leave wall of text essays on how terrible everything is
Time to block me too then 😛
but overall the site does have plenty of both people praising and criticizing things and I find both equally uninteresting about 90% of the time.
I have a different experience (possibly because of the stuff that I read), where the praise to (valid) criticism ratio is 20:1.
You know what I mean? I feel like a healthy debate's goal is just to get people to think of things from another point of view even though they'll still continue to disagree. People just usually don't change their mind even if they can kind of see what someone else means with an opposing view.
Some people do change their minds, especially if they are younger. I have had my mind changed through fruitful discussions. So I wouldn't say it is entirely pointless. There's the entertainment factor too, but that's orthogonal.
I meant that more in regards to judging what you've read for yourself rather than seeing what other people think of something.
External information does help very much, especially when it's not just a rehash of what you already have in your head.
I'm disappointed you didn't have anything to say about the Austin Powers
I haven't watched it, so I cannot comment on your joke. And before you recommend that I watch it, I probably will at some point, it's just not high up on my priority list.