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10 things people should know about arguments.

Peter
10 months ago
  1. Arguments aren't only worth having if you succeed in changing people’s minds. There are lots of other benefits:
    1. You might change your own mind.
    2. In the process of arguing you will learn many of those who disagree with you are reasonable people with thought out views, not monsters or morons.
    3. Others will see you are not a monster or a moron.
    4. In the process of having to argue and justify your points you will gain a greater understanding of what you believe and why you believe it. You may even have an epiphany.
  2. Argument is not a democratic exercise even though it's foundational to democracy. If you have one voice supporting a position and 100 decrying it, all making the same arguments, what you have is 99 redundant voices in the argument. Arguments are not about personal preference or popularity. All positions no matter how unpopular need to be heard.
  3. Be wary of arguing based on generalising your personal experience to others. You generally only see one side, your side, of the situations you are in. You can generally only infer or guess if others truly share your experiences. And even if your personal experience is dispositive for you, it's not something you can generally prove to others, they can't look inside your head and memories to verify your claims.
    1. Don't accuse people of calling you a liar because they won't accept your personal experience as evidence.
  4. Never confuse someone trying to invalidate your beliefs and them trying to invalidate you as a person. Attacks on your arguments are not that same as attacks on you personally.
  5. It is wisdom to overlook an offence. You rarely further your arguments by returning others insults.
  6. You don't have to support a position to argue against a bad argument offered in support of that position. Playing devil’s advocate and arguing against your own weak arguments will make your arguments stronger. Not everyone who argues against your opponent’s agrees with you. Not everyone who pokes holes in your logic disagrees with your ultimate conclusion.
  7. Pick and choose your arguments. You only have so much time and energy in life. If your arguments don't benefit your insight or others why spend time on them.
  8. The arguments that work aren't always good. Appealing emotively to the crowed may be effective but wise people will see through it (even if they agree with you).
  9. Don't be afraid to contradict people wiser and more experienced than you. Anything you tell a wise person will only make them wiser and it's better to be corrected than live in ignorance thinking you are right when you are wrong because you never posed the question.
  10. If you're getting angry, and you don't have a stake in the outcome, it's probably time to stop arguing.
Parents
  • 10 months ago

    The wisest thing to do would be to not argue in the first place. There's no point. No one wins in the end, it just results in the mods locking the thread and normally a few members will leave.

Reply
  • 10 months ago

    The wisest thing to do would be to not argue in the first place. There's no point. No one wins in the end, it just results in the mods locking the thread and normally a few members will leave.

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