i consider something to be a discourse when it meets the following conditions:
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It is imbued with moral weight, or one’s position on it is otherwise considered to be indicative of their membership in a broader faction.
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It becomes widespread enough within a community that, combined with the implied mora weight, a sizeable portion of the community feel some compulsion to weigh-in.
that’s probably useless for coming up with a succinct way to convey the idea, but yk
revising this to add a third rule:
- some considerable contingent of people involved in the discussion believe that there is a solid, immovable, and clear Answer, and that someone already knows it.