Does disagreement bother you?

I really don’t like fighting. I’d rather just talk (not shout) about it once, get it all over with, and move on. This goes for little situations too. When we get one of those door-to-door people, I always tell someone else to answer the door because I don’t like telling those people “No.” I can if I have to, but I’d rather have someone else do it.

If it did I wouldn’t be here.

Also, I think confrontation is different that disagreement. I don’t particularly like confrontation, but I find disagreements fascinating (especially when people have opposing but equally valid viewpoints).

It sounds to me that you like to “debate, not agure. No one likes arguing. I like a nice spirited discussion now and then. Perhaps you should consider a career as a lawyer. You might also enjoy a debate club. :-)

I like debate or discussion a lot.

That said, I don’t like arguing—arguing with shouting, especially. My dad was pretty rage-filled. I have a horror of public scenes left over from being humiliated watching his as a child.

It took me well into young adulthood before I could send a restaurant order back even if it was completely the wrong food! I have finally gotten more comfortable speaking up for myself and learning that there is a continuum of responses.

It doesn’t have to be scream and shout or hold your tongue.

Disagreements don’t really bother me. Of course, depending on the circumstances and the reason you’re sharing your views, you may or may not need to agree.
If you don’t need to agree, I’m happy to let others hold different views to my own – as long as I feel I get a chance to make a case for my view and I will of course listen to the case for the opposing view in return. Although sometimes I’m not as willing to let it go if I don’t feel the case for the opposing view is very reasonable or strong.

Now when you have to take a common view (at work, typically), it can be a bit more challenging. Do you compromise or debate till one convinces the other? Personally I prefer the latter because then you’ll have at least one strong supporter of the view. If you compromise you end up with a weakly supported view and that won’t do you much good in the long run.
I don’t mind admitting I change my view or stance on something as long as I feel good about the reasons for it, i.e. being presented with compelling arguments.

Nope. I adore debate/lengthy discussion.

I don’t really ‘do’ smalltalk. It drives people crazy. I tend to nudge somewhat controversial topics in to conversations to keep life interesting. Nate and I can (and regularly do) talk for hours and hours and hours about things like the definition and application of agnosticism, or the way the school system should and shouldn’t work, or me explaining the more complicated things i’m learning about our evolution right now.

Most of my friends are people who have something that they can teach me and vise versa.

What bothers me is when there’s someone who is really immature and is just disagreeing in the stupidest (and therefore un-counter-able) ways. A recent example. I was discussing the state of Taiwan with a friend of mine, and an acquaintance walks up and starts talking about how he heard that they ate dogs and cats there. My friend and I both agree that that may be true, but don’t see a problem with it. If people are hungry they do what they need to. And who are we to judge them for their tastes anyways. His response is to start talking about how he also heard that they ate babies and the elderly….
Gah. SO frustrating.

If he were presenting some kind of educated discourse, I wouldn’t mind so much… but just trying to offend me is really immature and tiresome.

Disagreement in and of itself doesn’t bother me. What does drive me crazy, and cause me to instantly disengage from the conversation, is realizing that the person I’m talking to doesn’t have any intention of listening to me or learning from what I have to say. A state of disagreement is always an opportunity to learn something, and it should always be productive in some way. If it isn’t, and the people involved are only interested in dominating the conversation and “proving” themselves right, it’s totally worthless.

Seeing some of the answers, I had to jump in. Disagreement is great and can be a learning experience. delirium and bearfair hit it on the head. The part of disagreement that I don’t understand, why some people think that yelling, name calling or foul language solves anything.
I have an opinion you have one. Tell me about yours, don’t tell me I’m an idiot and stupid because you don’t agree. Very few things are absolute so please don’t give opinion as fact.
I see confrontion in a very different light.

its pretty fun putting someone in check.

Disagreement is just a fact of life.

Arguing is a waste of time because it implies that both parties are simply locked in their positions and are unwilling to budge.

Consultation and discussion are far preferable.

I thrive on disagreement