Statue of Ronald Reagan unveiled in Grosvenor Square...

Really?  All 300 million Americans are in agreement on Ronald Reagan's greatness?  I find that hard to believe when you consider the wide range of opinions on almost any other subject or person you'd care to mention.

In reality, as with most other things, there are people who think Reagan was great, people who think he was not great, and people who fall in the middle of those two extremes.  Just because you think he was great doesn't mean the whole country thinks he was great.

p.s. It's "presided", not "resided".  The first means "to be in charge of" and the second means "lived in".

I'm well aware of the difference of presided and resided. Simple typo, no need to be rude! Like I said NOT everyone will agree with me but I liked him and like I said that's MY OPINION.

Like I said NOT everyone will agree with me but I liked him and like I said that's MY OPINION.

I don't have any problem with you voicing your opinion, it was your claim that "...here in the US Ronald Reagan is looked at as one of the greatest presidents to have ever resided [sic] over my country" that I have a problem with.  You stated that as though it was a fact, when it's not.

I'm well aware of the difference of presided and resided. Simple typo, no need to be rude!

Which part was the rude part?  All I said was you used the wrong word and explained why.  How do I know if it was a typo or if you just didn't know which word was which?

I have to agree with camoscato.

It feels like you think we're all from a place other than the US. Sure, some of us are, but this is generally a forum for Americans living in/moving to the UK. Your lecture of "how it is to Americans" isn't wanted or needed.

And not all Americans, dare I say not a majority, think that Reagan was wonderful.

Well those are both your opinions.. I expressed mine, you expressed yours. Case of a agree to disagree. Don't like feeling bullied so I will back out of said posting..

Well those are both your opinions.. I expressed mine, you expressed yours. Case of a agree to disagree.

Can you not see the problem?  You said, "in the US Ronald Reagan is looked at as one of the greatest presidents."  All you had to do was change "in the US" to "I think" and nobody would've had an issue with it.  It's the difference between speaking for yourself and speaking for all Americans.  The first is fine, the second is bound to bother people who would rather speak for themselves.

Don't like feeling bullied so I will back out of said posting..

How is people disagreeing with you bullying?  

Well those are both your opinions.. I expressed mine, you expressed yours. Case of a agree to disagree. Don't like feeling bullied so I will back out of said posting..

The problem is you presented your opinion as fact, rather than just your opinion.

I'm well aware of the difference of presided and resided. Simple typo, no need to be rude! Like I said NOT everyone will agree with me but I liked him and like I said that's MY OPINION.

you're absolutely entitled to your opinion.  At the same time, we are entitled to comment on your opinion.

In my opinion, Ronald Reagan was one of the worst presidents the US ever had.  His contribution to the economy was to increase the national debt hugely, spike unemployment, and cause a recession.  He gets undue credit for "winning" the cold war, when his presence in the white house made war with Russia more likely than it had been under the last decade of his predecessors.  He was so clueless about the environment that he once said "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.".  He supported Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the  Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, planting the seeds for the two wars we've been fighting for close to a decade.  He funded the Contras in Nicaragua even while he knew they were terrorizing the populating with death squads and raping and murdering nuns.

In my opinion, a fitting monument to Reagan would be an eternally smoking hole in the ground, somewhere in Orange County.

This board tends strongly towards liberalism. People who idolize Regan tend to be more conservatives.  If Little Miss Sarcasm lived in a conservative region of the US, then yes, most people she knows would think he was a great president. If she knew people who don't think the sun rose and set out of his ars* then they probably kept their opinions to themselves for the same reason that conservativs on this board do - because the backlash of popular opinion is excessive. She made a sweeping generalization that wasn't popular and will certainly think twice before ever daring to express her world view. 

If you would like to start a thread where you can Ragan- and Thatcher-bash, may I suggest that Pettifrog would be a better place than News?

Which part was the rude part?  All I said was you used the wrong word and explained why.  How do I know if it was a typo or if you just didn't know which word was which?

Well, you'd have to think someone is pretty stupid to assume that was ignorance and not a simple typo so yeah, that was meant to be insulting and thus rude.

if someone feels bullied when people challenge their views in a discussion forum, is that the fault of the person or the fault of the forum?

if someone feels bullied when people challenge their views in a discussion forum, is that the fault of the person or the fault of the forum?

Why is "the fault of the person doing the challenging" not an option? There are ways to say "I disagree" without being mean.  If 20 people immediately say, "you're wrong" that's one thing. If 19 people say "you're wrong" and ignore a 20th person who says, "you're wrong and here's a few personal attacks for good measure" then it feels like the internet is falling on your head. 

The problem with beating her up about "stating an opinion" without using keywords such as "in my opinion" or "I, and most people I know, think" is that things like ranking your favourite presidents is always subjective, it's always opinion. You pick your criteria, which is subjective, and then you decide how people measure up, again subjective.  If they'd all served at the same time and faced the same problems then maybe you could measure the things that make them difference, but opinion will still colour which criteria you consider to be most important.

To imply that her statement reflects a minority opinion is disingenuous at best.  Reagan is regarded by many in the US to have been a great president. He is hero-worshiped. That is a fact. My brother, a captain in the Army, wants to have a son and name him Ronald - and if he has a girl he'll name her Maggie. 

Yes, claiming that he was a great president goes over like a lead balloon* around here.  But she wasn't wrong that the comment about dropping his statue in the Thames was disrespectful and she wasn't wrong that a lot of Americans would be offended by the suggestion.

*one of my favourite phrases, please forgive the cliché.

Why is "the fault of the person doing the challenging" not an option?

That's what I meant by "the fault of the forum".

There are ways to say "I disagree" without being mean.  If 20 people immediately say, "you're wrong" that's one thing. If 19 people say "you're wrong" and ignore a 20th person who says, "you're wrong and here's a few personal attacks for good measure" then it feels like the internet is falling on your head. 

Please point me to the personal attacks made in this thread.

The problem with beating her up about "stating an opinion" without using keywords such as "in my opinion" or "I, and most people I know, think" is that things like ranking your favourite presidents is always subjective, it's always opinion.

Here's the problem:

It's not that she stated her opinion without prefacing it as her opinion.

It's that she stated her opinion as the opinion of the US:

"but I'm American and here in the US Ronald Reagan is looked at as one of the greatest presidents to have ever resided over my country"

That's a long way away from "I think Ronald Reagan is one of the greatest presidents", or even "Ronald reagan is one of the greatest presidents".  I think it's quite acceptable for other Americans to object to her acting as the spokesperson of their views.

Yes, there are Americans who do think he was one of the greatest presidents.  There has been a lot of fairly well organized halo polishing done on the right to try and make this so.  There are also lots of Americans who think he was either a mediocre or an actively dreadful president.  Trying to express the opinion of "the US" about him is not something that's really possible.

...
Here's the problem:

It's not that she stated her opinion without prefacing it as her opinion.

It's that she stated her opinion as the opinion of the US:

"but I'm American and here in the US Ronald Reagan is looked at as one of the greatest presidents to have ever resided over my country"

That's a long way away from "I think Ronald Reagan is one of the greatest presidents", or even "Ronald reagan is one of the greatest presidents".  I think it's quite acceptable for other Americans to object to her acting as the spokesperson of their views.

Yes, there are Americans who do think he was one of the greatest presidents.  There has been a lot of fairly well organized halo polishing done on the right to try and make this so.  There are also lots of Americans who think he was either a mediocre or an actively dreadful president.  Trying to express the opinion of "the US" about him is not something that's really possible.

Not to mention the way she spoke was as if we weren't mostly Americans, ourselves.

There's a difference between the posters and the forum. The actions of several posters is not "the forum".  If you say something and I question it in a way that hurts your feelings, that would not be "the fault of the forum" - that would be me. It continues to be individuals, and not the forum, even if two, three, or three-hundred other people also question your statement in a way that hurts you, even if it's the combined response and not any individual comment that wounds.

There are ways to phrase things but there are also ways to say "hey, I think you phrased that badly. Here's why, and here's a suggestion of a better way to express such things in the future."  Further, depending on where you live in the US, depending on your news-media *cough-Murdoch-cough* exposure, it is entirely possible to think that 99.9% of the population believes as you do.  As someone who grew up in a very liberal part of the country, I can assure you, the reverse is also true. Again, there are ways to react and community-build and ways to alienate.

I think this community tends to stomp pretty hard on conservative viewpoints and that this thread is an example of it.  

I think this community tends to stomp pretty hard on conservative viewpoints and that this thread is an example of it.  

While I think you've got a point regarding the political slant of the forum, if you look closely at my responses I said nothing about Ronald Reagan's legacy.  My problem is with the way LMS framed her argument.  It may be she thinks all of America loves Ronald Reagan because she lives in a conservative area in which everyone she meets loves Ronald Reagan, or maybe she didn't think about how her statement would read to other people, or maybe there's another explanation.  Whatever it is, her statement a) isn't true, and b) claims to speak for the entire population of the US, of which I'm a member, and I'd rather speak for myself.

Well, you'd have to think someone is pretty stupid to assume that was ignorance and not a simple typo so yeah, that was meant to be insulting and thus rude.

I'm impressed that even though you and I have never met, you're still happy to tell me what my intent was.  

There are a lot of possible explanations why LMS used the wrong word.  Maybe she's stupid, maybe she just heard the word wrong when she learned it and no one has ever said anything, and maybe she just can't type.  Rather than assume any of those are true, I just told her she used the wrong word.  My advice to people who want to have a political discussion via written arguments in a public forum is make sure you write what you mean, otherwise the people you're arguing with might not understand you.

She made a sweeping generalization that wasn't popular and will certainly think twice before ever daring to express her world view. 

Why are you blaming the board for what is, in this case, the writer's fault?  If she'd clearly stated her opinion as an opinion, she'd have been fine.  (She'd still have gotten responses from people who didn't share her opinion, but based on her post I think she probably expected that.)

This board tends strongly towards liberalism. People who idolize Regan tend to be more conservatives.  If Little Miss Sarcasm lived in a conservative region of the US, then yes, most people she knows would think he was a great president. If she knew people who don't think the sun rose and set out of his ars* then they probably kept their opinions to themselves

Exactly.  I live in a conservative region where Reagan is idolized as a great president.  I disagree, but tend to keep mum about it.