“I don’t like when people share their political opinions, because it leads to annoying debates.” I overheard this in a café recently. I promptly flipped my table, lit a torch, kicked over the espresso machine and set the offending college student’s textbooks ablaze.
I love to get into it with people, to test their ideas, to challenge them with reason and arguments. I’ve done it habitually for about three years now, first via a private Facebook group, now mainly via Twitter, and of course with whoever is willing to look me in the eye and debate in person. I’ve learned a lot by doing this.
So many people have no idea what they’re talking about.
So many people are full of nothing but ego and insults.
There are only three things you need to win an argument with most people.
1- Know your stuff.
2- Be honest.
3- Don’t back down.
I used to not know my stuff. I used to spend most of my time listening to music, watching TV, running around with my friends, playing guitar, and reading comic books.
I didn’t take me long to catch up on knowing my stuff about things I really care about.
Abortion is literally murder. Life begins at conception. This isn’t a religious belief. The definition of life in the Oxford English Dictionary says that life is organic material that grows, reproduces, shows functional activity, and continually changes. A zygote does all those things very shortly after fertilization. Abortion stops all those things, and the vast majority of abortions are done for non-life threatening reasons. That’s all I really need to know.
Free speech is essential to a healthy society. Free speech built the most powerful, prosperous, secure nation in the history of the world. Free speech is how we collectively think. If my thoughts are wrong, there’s no literally no way to correct them except by sharing them so they can be recognized and corrected, or by listening to someone else speak freely about something I’m confused about.
Christianity is a totally reasonable religion. Science and Christianity existed side by side for centuries, mutually propping one another up. Even atheist historians accept Christ was real, and many converted themselves while trying to disprove the resurrection. Atheists often become Christian when they do real research and realize they evidence is incredibly compelling.
And so on. Obviously, I have a lot to learn. But, I’m honest about what I don’t know. When you lie, you discredit yourself. A lie only lasts until someone who knows their stuff comes around. And everyone loves to call out liars. They prowl around like wolves, sniffing for the scent of baseless nonsense. I’m one of them. Be honest, or I’ll kill you. Metaphorically.
I used to back down. I remember explaining to a classmate that while I love gay people, my religion teaches me that homosexuality is immoral. He screamed that I was a bigot. I’m still shocked at how bad that hurt. I backed down when I learned all my friends supported shredding apart unborn babies in utero. I backed down when my friends mocked Jesus, even though he kept me from suicide.
It wasn’t till I saw some good examples that I learned not to back down. Trump doesn’t back down. I didn’t like Trump at all before ’15. I still don’t like a lot about him. But I love that he doesn’t back down. Shapiro doesn’t back down. Jordan Peterson doesn’t back down. Steven Crowder doesn’t back down. Peterson is the best and not backing down and not ramping up. He’s the Zen master. He shows how insane the clowns are by being so sane. I’m not there yet. I still can’t resist triggering the clowns.
How valuable is it to trigger the clowns? I have to say, there is some value in setting them off. It shows the world how clownish they are. It shows how thin their values are. It shows how hot headed and overly emotional they are.
On the other hand, sometimes you can win a convert with cool headedness. I’d say roughly 1 out of 100 people I argue with actually listen. Maybe fewer, and they’re usually conservatives. Maybe it’s better to make examples of the clowns and let the world see their true colors. Some people actually get so triggered they have a moment of clarity where they see how ridiculous they are.
For the most part, I mostly see people fleeing the left. The left is so much more irrational, so reactionary, so fascistic and dogmatic, all the folks in the middle cringe away.
I’m really a centrist. I love God, but I don’t believe in making laws about what adults do with marijuana or sex. I love the USA, but I love when people make valid criticisms against the USA too. We’re not perfect. I want to preserve the planet for my children, but I also want to see better evidence for climate change.
“Climate change.” What a stupid term. Shows just how far the left has fallen.
I grew up loving the founding fathers, but my socialist social studies teacher taught me about Iran-Contra. Punk music took me further down the road of nihilism. I regret it so much. It took a decade before a knowledgeable econ professor put me back on track.
Rightists, you’re on the right side for now. Want to win? Take it from a former nihilist/apathetic centrist. Know your stuff, be honest, and don’t back down. I was dying for someone to look up to. Be someone worth looking up to, and they center will flock to you.