Yes, that was my experience too, Vidiot. When I realized that the Society's arguments against evolution were specious, it led me to research the topic more fully. Unfortunately I allowed creationist sites to lead me astray. I think I still wanted to believe in creationism, so I let their arguments hold more sway with me than they deserved.
That being said, the conclusion of my research was that I saw both sides of the issue as being equally likely, rather than deciding firmly on creationism. So it definitely was the beginning of a mental move away from the "truth", especially because I had to rely on non-Watchtower arguments to support my position once I had seen how little the Society's writers knew about evolution and how little interest they had in representing it fairly (Ken Ham makes those guys look bad, and that's saying a lot).
I spent some time yesterday going through a couple of threads and I realized that there was no way that either a free exchange of thought or a fair an unbiased discussion could continue. It was kind of dis heartening because I wanted to jump in but I then realized that it would be like walking in front of a moving train.
I would just suggest that people are this way everywhere. How many people have you seen discussing Ferguson rationally outside of this board? Five percent? So why should this forum be an exception to human emotionality? I don't actually know which discussions you're referring to, and you might not mean any of the more politically-charged ones, but in those cases at least, I'm not surprised when people cannot temper their emotions. It's sadly just humans being humans.
Personally I don't even read those topics, much less participate. Once someone responds rudely to one's post, it's hard to remain calm and not retaliate, so I prefer to avoid emotionally-charged topics altogether (though sometimes I get caught in a topic that turns emotional, and it gets to me too). It's also true that there is probably more pent-up anger among the users here than on an average forum, just because of our experiences. See this topic for a very telling insight into the board's mindset, as an example: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/284727/1/I-loathe-authority
That being said, sometimes it's fun to jump in front of (imaginary) trains It can't actually hurt you. Why not just dive in and offer your opinion? Expressing oneself freely is a nice change of pace from being a Witness, and especially from being at Bethel, right? Odds are, a few members will appreciate what you have to say. Sometimes it takes one person to speak up first; then they find that others chime in to support them. And even if the discussion goes south, don't worry; people generally don't seem to remember who said what a month later.
