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Plenty of disagreement, not much “arguing”

 •  • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

I disagree with a lot of people about a lot of things in the world of pain and injury science… but I don’t go on social media to argue about any of it.

I haven’t “argued” about anything in that environment for many years. What I want out of the comments is to find out who believes what and why, to learn from the best examples, and report on the range of views.

I will occasionally issue bland corrections of the most glaring misinformation. And when I’m insulted? Which happens all the time? I ignore it. I don’t answer at all, or I reply like I’m a naive alien, oblivious to insult, incapable of even perceiving it: “I will definitely ‘go eff myself,’ thank you for the suggestion. Earthlings are so considerate!”

So I keep it classy. And it’s not easy. That’s a skill that I’ve been honing for a quarter century now.

Don’t get me wrong: I admire and even envy people who fiercely defend values I share. I’m not always happy about avoiding those arguments. I do it because reasons, but there are definitely days when I fantasize about wading into the fray and swinging hard for the sheer madcap joy of it! 😜

PainSci Member Login » Submit your email to unlock member content. If you can’t remember/access your registration email, please contact me. ~ Paul Ingraham, PainSci Publisher