Throughout my life I’ve found that discussing Philosophy person-to-person to be a waste of time. Average, normal people, aren’t really interested in philosophical discussions, no matter how relevant or important the content maybe. This is because the average person is not learning or knowing about his/her own, meaning in life, but rather enacting it out. Average people are “too busy living” to examine their own lives. Thus their self-perception, self-consciousness, self-knowledge, self-identity is lacking. This is how people take sides in politics and religion. “My side is right, your side is wrong” the why and how is lost to the individual who holds the position. So average people go about their lives, holding views, opinions, values, that 1) they may not even know and 2) be completely wrong about. And even if they are wrong, and you could convince them, it won’t mean that they change these wrong opinions, but rather that they would find another means and route to justify their incorrect position.
There have been times where I out-reasoned another guy, a co-worker, in front of a female co-worker, embarrassing him. Instead of learning a lesson, however, all he did is build resentiment and become vindictive. So I learned that it is a waste of time to reason with a fool. “He will only hate you for it.” There are ways to convince and persuade people without resentment. And that is by leading them rhetorically so it feels as-if they come to the right/correct conclusion “on their own”. Plato employed this through the “Socratic Method”. You don’t “prove the idiot, moron, fool wrong” in front of a crowd. Instead you lead him to the point where, no matter what s/he answers or responds, must do so in a way that exposes what they originally believed as false. Then they have no choice except to resign and concede defeat, or, claim the conclusion as their own, as-if they were responsible for discovering it.
I’ve experienced all of these firsthand. So I’ve come to the conclusion that online forums, seeking out like-minded people, about philosophy, is the surest route. In other words, if philosophy cannot be discussed here, on forums designed specifically for it, then where else can it? You can try to discuss philosophy person-to-person, but as mentioned, will probably waste your time. If average people and humanity wanted philosophy, then they too, would seek it out where it ought to be found, and that means places where philosophers congregate, or ought to congregate.
Academic philosophy, colleges, universities, is another option but a lesser one, as academia is political and interested in its own advancement and institutionalization. This is why I never pursued a ‘formal’ or academic end to philosophy. Academic philosophy is restricted, limited, and stunted. It has no freedom, which real philosophy can provide, outside all institutions. To think freely, is one of the highest goals. To truly ‘own’ your own mind, to have “your own thoughts” instead of merely being a follower or a tool to others, and especially to other, long-dead thinkers. How much of what an intelligent person knows, a very knowledgeable person, his or her own thoughts? It could be very little, or even nothing at all.
Look at a person, a stranger. It could very well be that 90-100% of “what they know”, their knowledge, is not theirs at all. But rather they have inherited it, institutionalized, and been forced upon them. They can very well be a mental slave to another. And that other doesn’t even have to be alive. Just as judeo-christians are slaves to a (dead) god. If a person must serve another, then why not the living, before the dead?
However the point remains, with philosophy there is hope, that you or any other can at least begin to own your own thoughts. To discover their sources, and understand, what you are responsible for versus what others are responsible for. Whether you had anything to do with the process of your own knowledge, or whether you received it from various sources: your parents, your family, your friends, your television, your movies, your media, your society, your history books, your institution, etc.
