Letter: How entertaining can we be?

Apparently popular forums for fair and balanced debate have lost any real currency. Accuracy and intellectual honesty are secondary to inflammatory posturing.

Most seem more concerned with scoring points for their preconceived biases and opinions than actual informed and respectful discussions. As such, here’s a suggestion for future letter writers:

All arguments should simply be judged on their entertainment value, since any substantive content is negotiable and subject to a point of view.

Along these lines, in the recent letters between Peggy Steffl and Thomas Smith, the latter’s correct use of the word “kerfuffle” was pretty impressive; Mrs. Steffl obviously conceded this by citing its use in her own letter — although opening with “sycophant” and utilizing sensationalistic religious allusions really upped her ante.

As typical hallmarks of the left and right are often a conciliatory tone and fear-mongering hyperbole respectively, whether these earn extra credit or penalty points is (gasp!) debatable.

Since “Brevity is the soul of wit” (5 point word — plus 10 points for quoting Oscar Wilde), that’s it for me.

But always try to use the word “ameliorate” somewhere — it makes it sound like you really know what you’re talking about!

Tags: letters to the editor, river falls, opinion