Debating Stonewalls

Some people fight unfair. The things they say and do can eat at you. Especially if you are someone who tries to play fair. Who listens to criticism and evaluates themselves in an ongoing endeavor to become a better person. So you value their words and take them literally to heart. But if you attack them similarly because of lack of introspection it does not bother them so much. Which is of course an indication they are small people. And although it may seem easy to defeat small thinking people it is actually hard.

The problem with arguing with surface thinkers is they only believe facts they think bolsters their arguments. Therefore, it does not matter how many studies or journal articles if it does not agree with there ideas it is fake news. So what happens is you can only use facts that prove their point.

Another problem with non-critical thinkers is as long as they do it and believe it is the right thing they are good people. It is I love myself and I know myself and I could never do wrong philosophy. They say racist things or do racist deeds but they believe they are good people so you are twisting their words or worse playing the race card. And they have the full deck of fifty-two cards for you to play. Class, religious, homophobic, misogynists cards are in their deck to excuse them of problematic behavior. They especially come in handy of when they feel you have a good argument.

The low effort thinkers can justify anything if it helps them win.  The ultimate objective is not truth or right it is to win the argument. Forget the concept may the best person win. So they can make up stats, stories, or lies about you. It is all okay as it nears them to their goal of winning.

The uneducated masses never look at the big picture. They will justify the end of food stamps because they know of one person who is a food stamp cheat. Because of .9% of cheats they must punish the other 99.1%. You may be arguing climate change but they look at global warming and find stats to disagree with warming but neglect to see the climate change around the world. They will argue that Obama had a corrupt government and name an incident and two and say that it is the same as Trump’s numerous cabinet member’s corruption as if they were equivalent.

The far right Republican is a believer in half truths. The Civil War was over state’s rights and so they will go off on how the Feds intruding on the economic rights of the South. They will never admit that the economic rights was the right to own slaves. Or they will argue that small government is the best. All the time promoting large build-ups in the military or the need to monitor women’s vaginas.  

So if all of this is true, then what do we do? Do not make your goal to win. Instead encourage them to read, think, or do something out of their normal patterns that might make them journey out of a unmovable stance to a step forward.

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