The Stifling of Discourse
Here are some argument techniques that, if you use them, you are literally killing what chance there is left for interesting debate in this game. It's something that I see done by both sides, and some of them done by one side more than the other (and vice-versa)
Unsubstantiated Claims - If you have an opinion, provide some reasoning. If you have a prediction about the future actions of a third party, provide some reasoning.
Mind Reading - If you want to directly refute a claim that someone makes that they are an authority on, have a good reason to call them a liar.
U MAD - It honestly doesn't matter if someone is mad. Taking things seriously isn't inherently a bad thing (despite how funny it can be).
Name calling - Really, are you 11?
Disagreement = whining - This is a big offender, as it directly and literally discourages discussion, as opposed to most of the rest of these that discourage it more as a byproduct. Disagreeing is not inherently whining, or crying, or whatever. Plain and simple.
Changing your mind = hypocrisy - Already wrote a full blog post on this one.
Words in someone's mouth - It's one thing to paraphrase someone's words to get at their true meaning, but it's entirely another thing to add any sort of emotion or "flavour text" to it.
This is not a comprehensive list; it's just what I came up with off the top of my head.
The unfortunate fact is that most of these are incredibly effective for the amount of effort it requires to use them in an argument. This is why they are so prolific, and why I felt like writing a blog post about it. The side effect of them is that it lowers the common denominator when it comes to overall discussion, and arguments become more about winning than trying to have a productive debate or express an opinion. People are fighting the PR war in the dirtiest ways they possibly can, and it's a downward spiral; the only way to effectively deal with it is with more of the same.
So I urge you, the reader, to take into consideration that when arguments like these are used, it is the intellectual equivalent of drowning a sack full of kittens. You can still have all of your terrible opinions without them, and you can still flap your jaws for pages over trivial !@#$%^&* that nobody cares about. But if enough people make a conscious decision not to stoop to these sorts of low-brow tactics, I assure you the potential for entertaining events will raise dramatically.
Keep this in mind: Deciding to distance myself from world politics was not a tough decision.
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