What is it about you, that you find yourself talking to people like this?
I know various people through other communication media, such as IRC and various blogs, where this stuff continues to happen. I also happen to know at least a few people locally who have been at least somewhat polarized by living in New England, and therefore take their dissent as some sign from above that they are obviously correct, and that everyone else is a left-leaning lemming who doesn't know The Actual Truth.
Additionally, there are still whole bunches of people out there who aren't in it for the game; they're in it for the wrasslin' and the beer. I think that's the part that mystifies me the most; people who relentlessly knowledge at each other, with no thoughts of actually discussing the subject at hand or making any forward progress towards truth. To that end, I wrote this post to show the ways in which I head off such discussions. It is my hope that by continuing to act in this way, one of two things will happen:
1) They will not attempt that crap in my presence, because I'll slowly take them apart, word by word.
2) They actually stop and think for a few seconds, and try to rephrase or rethink their arguments into something that's coherent, as opposed to a series of tired rhetorical devices.
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Date: 2006-08-14 01:36 pm (UTC)I know various people through other communication media, such as IRC and various blogs, where this stuff continues to happen. I also happen to know at least a few people locally who have been at least somewhat polarized by living in New England, and therefore take their dissent as some sign from above that they are obviously correct, and that everyone else is a left-leaning lemming who doesn't know The Actual Truth.
Additionally, there are still whole bunches of people out there who aren't in it for the game; they're in it for the wrasslin' and the beer. I think that's the part that mystifies me the most; people who relentlessly knowledge at each other, with no thoughts of actually discussing the subject at hand or making any forward progress towards truth. To that end, I wrote this post to show the ways in which I head off such discussions. It is my hope that by continuing to act in this way, one of two things will happen:
1) They will not attempt that crap in my presence, because I'll slowly take them apart, word by word.
2) They actually stop and think for a few seconds, and try to rephrase or rethink their arguments into something that's coherent, as opposed to a series of tired rhetorical devices.
I will continue to hope.