Ideas genesis

I think the point of why I became interested in these discussion groups was the desire to actually find a place where people would discuss ideas and generally feel free to express themselves without all the hassles of "is this the right room" or the right forum?
It seemed that rooms would get onto a good thread so many times, only to have a wrench thrown in the process by some knuckle scraper who can’t keep up intellectually and so goes for the cheap shot by throwing down some anti Semitic or Racist comment and everyone expends their energy on beating him down.
Or, as we’ve all seen, the room gets polarised around a core of posters who recycle the same arguments over and over, even after it’s painfully obvious that there is NEVER going to be a resolution of the issue.
Sooooo, I decided to see if I couldn’t browbeat a little civility into these discussions by making my own room.
To that end:
One of the many things I’m interested in is the idea of how culture has been effected in the last 25 years by the infiltration of both TV and the Internet.
The great assertion was that the Internet would usher in a new era of transparency and knowledge. The "Great Unwashed" would be privy to the riches of information that the internet would provide and everyone would be able to communicate with everyone else and regionalism and prejudice would evaporate as everyone realised everyone else was just like them.
Well, as we know that hasn’t happened.
All this knowledge has either not been accessed or somehow, the almighty "site" reference has replaced actually looking it up in print.
The mantra has become " I saw it posted, so it must be true"
However, as we know, any Tom, Dick or Harry can throw up a website.
And "debate" has become three exaggerated statistics quoted by the Right, countered by 3 op -ed pieces referenced by the left.
Neither side has actually hit upon the actual truth, but neither side knows or will admit that.
Can we actually ever reclaim the dream of reasoned and temperate Intellectual Discourse in an unregulated and unmoderated forum or, have the Barbarians stormed the gate already?
Time will tell.
Mike