Get some.
Mine are enormous. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe it, it’s insane.
Whatever, Smears.
Things will settle down soon enough Smears…
People tend to project their own shortcomings onto others. The idea that “everyone on the internet needs to grow some balls” would, to me, speak to its author more than “the internet.”
Just sayin’.
Hmm…
It does not appear that Smears was trying to tell everyone on the internet to grow a set of balls.
Okay, okay, I realize that on the surface that’s exactly what it looks like, but it seems to me that if you look a bit closer and add a little context, this was a pretty pointed remark.
Perhaps I’m just reading too much into it, but that’s what I got out of the whole thing.
This thread was the summation of several other threads where Smears was a bit unhappy with the lack of philosophical discussion in comparison to the usual bullshit sessions. Sadly, in many ways, he was right. The amount of philosophy discussed can be in damned short supply from time to time. 
I hope he comes back at some point. Almost all of us old timers bail out periodically. We get tired of ourselves saying the same crap over and over.
I rarely have any kind of philosophical conversation, or at least nothing that the pretentious “philosophers” around this place would call a philosophical conversation.
I’m okay with that.
It would be nice if Smears would come back, though.
He should have checked out the Philosophy board… plenty of philosophical discussion going on in there 
and anyway, philosophy isn’t just about the classic, but about what we (society) deems important to us in current times.
Change can be a good thing but some people don’t like change, and it seems that ILP is evolving/changing with it’s member-base as we try to accommodate all.
Hey Smears
I’ve more or less stopped hanging out at ILP as well… But it’s probably not fair to blame the staff for the lack of quality.
Us old timers have pretty much covered all the topics we had an interest in with pretty much everyone who had anything interesting to say… and we’re not too keen on repeating past conversations.
The problem seems to be the lack of new people with interesting things to say… I suppose one might blame the staff for not making the forum more inhospitable to the less… erm… “philosophically inclined” people that come along and make the site appear like any other site, but then again, if the staff did chase them off we’d be left with nothing to talk about and the site would seem dead. I suppose the staff would have the site be alive but less philosophy oriented rather than dead…
The only truble is that when someone finally DOES come along and wishes to discuss something philosophical and interesting the thread quickly gets flooded with prattle and so it becomes increasingly diffucult for those of us with an actual interest in philosophy to find eachother… so, more often than not, we don’t find eachother.
in short… ILP no longer feels like a philosophy forum… but it remains active, at least.
That’s the way it goes sometimes… and we’re just going to have to deal with it. And if ILP has become populated with too many people with no interest in philosophy then maybe it’s time to go look for another philosophy site? it wasn’t the staff or the rules that made ILP great… it was the people that came here and shared their thoughts, most of whom have left already, or are spending their time talking trash for kicks and giggles… No use hanging around blaming the staff, the new people, and the rules… just say your goodbyes, mourn the loss and move on.
If people would solicit honesty and promote good behavior then ILP would advance with new vigor. There has been too much ill feelings tossed about along with ad hom soliloquys. Rather than displaying anger and intellectual bigotry, the exchange of ideas tempered with tolerance of thought could harbor harmony at this site.
When people use ILP as a playground, then discussions suffer. Even the ‘Rant House’ has been abused as hard as that is to imagine. What is so hard about being civil without bestowing the ‘gotcha’ mentality. That is what in my mind makes sites like this suffer. People take ILP for granted. A lot of effort goes on behind the scenes to try to keep the train on the tracks. Carleas didn’t have to take this responsibility over from Ben, but he must have felt the importance of this venue would have been a great loss to let go. I know I would have tried to keep ILP up and going.
Tolerance of ill behavior has been stretched to the limit in my way of thinking here. Folks should be thankful for site such as this.
I like both touching my own balls, as well as putting other peoples’ balls in my mouth.
I recommend the same to everybody. It helps us all grow.
Implying gayness is just so gay.
And I’m thinking that recommending oral ball fondling as a growth-factor is dodgy legal ground.
“Dad, Dad, how will I ever grow as big and tall as you…?”
“Well son, whatcha gotta do is…”
Oh man… You totally just went there… wow.
I couldn’t help but giggle though… You have an interesting mind Mr. Tab.
How is sexism embedded in English language?
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…
I would argue that it’s actually the exact opposite, that it’s exactly the new people, saying exactly the same kind of thing we used to say when we first got here. It’s from a perspective of years in the game that topics look tired and facile. People new to philosophy just don’t offer as much stimulation to people steeped in it.
What you’re talking about is not really the percentage of philosophy discussions, but the percentage of philosophy discussions at your level of proficiency. As you get into the upper end of the bell curve, the number of people up there with you is bound to dwindle.
Good to see you around, MMP.
I’m going to agree here because people can be a little more interesting and creative in choice of subject.
When I first came here thinking I had it all figured out I got schooled on my own level of ignorance pretty quickly by the people here at the time, something I will always be greatful for…
Currently the new people don’t seem to be recieving that kind of education… some of them seem downright uninterested in learning from anyone else, as that would imply they don’t know everything already…
I don’t think that’s a fair way to view the situation. Sure the topics that are related to philosophy are still being discussed… but it’s not WHAT you’re talking about that’s important… it’s WHO you are talking to and WHAT they are hoping to accomplish durring that discussion. What makes a philosophical discussion is people honestly and rigorously attempting to get at an understanding of the subject at hand…
In the end It dosn’t really matter how well read people are or how uneducated, so long as they are eager to learn and advance… That is what philosophy means after all… a love of wisdom!
If I were to debate someone who knew less than myself, I would quickly point out the arguments/assumptions/whatever that cause our disagreement and that person would realize that he had not thought the topic through properly… he might look things up and read up on the matter in an attempt to understand my arguments and perhaps even overcome them… and soon he would be wiser for having debated me and I would surely have had a thoughtful discussion, even if i learned nothing from it in the end.
OTOH it can be very frustrating having a discussion with someone clearly not interested in anything other than promoting his own notions about this or that, giving no thought to the other persons arguments and perspectives… reason and debate are wasted on such people… and ILP is currently sporting quite a few such characters.
Thanks buddy 
I too got schooled by ILP, but it took a while. I definitely had that “oooooooh, I see where I’m going wrong here” moment after four pages of arguing for an untenable position. Even with a sincere desire to understand, with a sincere love of wisdom, it can be really hard to accept the ways that one’s argument is wrong. Pointing out the assumptions is all well and good, but philosophical rigor rarely trumps human psychology, even when there’s a sincere love of wisdom and desire for understanding. Changing one’s beliefs takes time. It’s true of both the new faces and the old guard of ILP, it’s just that the new people haven’t had the chance to expose as many of their beliefs to criticism.
I have observed for past waves of newcomers, and I predict for this group, that are some who cause trouble and get bored, others that pursue philosophy for a time and then move on, and a third group that stays on to join the ranks of legendary ILPers. I further predict that those in the last category will complain that tomorrow’s newcomers are just not of the same caliber as back in the good old days 