28 People Online Made Fools Of Themselves By Picking An Argument With Someone Much Dumber Than Them
Mark Twain once famously said “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” That statement is scary for a number of reasons, most notably because stupidity is infinite, and thus the experience can be absolutely annihilating when you start digging deep into the whole thing.
This has become the premise for a now-viral AskReddit thread where people shared their best real-life examples of how to never argue with a person so far lost in the vast infinity of stupidity that they themselves shall never be able to comprehend how wrong they are.
You can hear about it by scrolling below, but be warned, you might leave this article with a headache.
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For a short while, I worked as a line cook at a Cracker Barrel, and there was a little saloon style door that led to the staff section (kitchen, bathroom, etc). There was a staff only sign on the door, above the doors, and on the wall behind the doors at eye level.
Usually if someone from the customer side comes in, they said, "Coming in" before opening the door, so they didn't hit anyone, but of course customers didn't know that.
So when this dude opened the door and hit a waitress carrying a ton of drinks, we were reasonably upset with him.
He said, "You should really put a sign up."
We showed him all the signs, and he goes, "That seems a bit excessive."
I was listening to a podcast once, and the host articulated something profound in a very well-stated way. He said (I paraphrase):
"I will never argue with a flat-earther, or an anti-vaxxer, or any of those people. The reason is because that these people have made that into _their whole identity_, and they are prepared to address any possible argument I could come up with. And because I care about facts and truth and they do not, my only possible response would be '...uh, I'll have to look into that, I don't know off the top of my head'. It doesn't matter that their response is incorrect or based on faulty research or has been rejected by the scientific community or whatever; by the time I discover that, they will be long gone and talking about how they won another debate."
This is it in a nutshell. If you argue about an issue with someone who has made _that one issue_ into the core of their persona, you will lose unless you are someone who has made arguing against that issue also into the core of your persona.
Of course I know that Andrew Wakefield is a liar and a scammer and of course I know that Apollo astronauts placed retroreflectors on the Moon which can be used to prove that they went there and that their photos of the spherical Earth are real, because I've done enough research to convince myself. But have I done enough research to convince someone who refuses to be convinced? And someone who has also done that research and come up with plausible-sounding nonsense to counter each of these arguments? Why would I waste my life doing this?
Exactly. Arguing with someone like that hurts the mind and nervous system. A useful response to 'the earth is flat' type views is to say Ah I see or simply OK. Smile and leave it at that. Let them then debate with the empty air.
But what about the fun response of "Oh no, you believe that conspiracy? I did too for a while but then I realized it was all a scam. The Earth is actually a triangle, that's why the illuminati chose the triangle as their symbol!".
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It's not my job to make you smarter or make you right. But it is my job to contain your stupidity so it doesn't harm anyone else.
Someone once told me that if Anne Coulter was doing a lecture, he'd attend for the Q&A and argue back with her. "It's not going to change her, but I might change a few minds in the audience."
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Reason why it's useless to debate with a flat earther: it is well known that the earth is round since ancient history and there are lots of real life experiments that you can do yourself at home or at least near any coast that showed earth was round loooong before Galileo Galilei even though about fighting the church on that. But flat earthers are people who will smugly use those very methods to prove that earth is flat, see that it indeed isn't, and start rants how government sends radio signals to impact experiments done with sticks and a piece of string. Still insisting they're right. You really can't argue with people who won't believe their own eyes
I don't really understand the science behind the moon landings. Why do I know they're real? Apollo 13. Congress was cutting the funds, so NASA wouldn't have faked a failure to get funds cut sooner and tighter. Everybody who had anything to contribute worked around the clock to get Lovell, Hayes, and Swigert safely home. Round the clock means hellish amounts of overtime. In the middle of the cold war, after Russia had officially lost the space race, they guaranteed diplomatic immunity and safe passage, should the astronauts have to land in Russian waters. When the astronauts were rescued, they were paraded down the streets and shown off. Hayes, who had become ill, wasn't present. If it had been fake, NASA would have shown off all three.
"You can't reason someone out of a belief that they didn't get reasoned into."
My granny always said dont put your wit to a fool. And my other favourite was empty vessels make the most noise.
Because the idiots’ research is Googling blogs that only confirm their own biases, not finding cold, hard, potentially opinion-changing facts from scholarly, peer-reviewed sources like smart people do. The idiots are the ones who dig in and won’t budge from their “facts”. Smart people know facts, but are willing to admit they’re wrong when they’re genuinely proven wrong, and are also willing to do more research and change their opinions if the research upholds the opposite of their (now former) opinions.
Where can I read facts about the moon landing? And I don't just mean Google, because that will take ages and I will procrastinate, I need a specific site or blog, if you know of one. I always tell people I don't have an opinion on it because I don't have enough information (which is true because I haven't ever made an effort to read enough about it)
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So what is the reasoning behind people believing that the earth is flat I really don't understand. What are they getting out of it?
It makes them feel special that they are the only ones to know about a vast government conspiracy that exists because of reasons. (Still fail to see how the government would benefit in any way about lying about the world being flat.) Sometimes it's a religious thing too.
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This reminds me of why America baffles me. It s the wealthiest nation on Earth and yet a not-insignificant proportion of its population believes that the moon landings were fake but professional wrestling isn't.
To be fair, the moon landing conspiracy nuts and pro wrestling is real people are the same group of people /s...or is it?
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One time a person started debating whether or not the earth was round, and I basically just went 'you know what? Fine. Okay. You do you. I literally do not care if you actually believe this or are just playing some game of Devil's Advocate. I just do not have the energy to debate this.' Pretty much the exact same response I had to a couple of moronic hippies that proudly told me that they were looking forward to milking their pet goat... and after getting off an 8-hour fast food shift dealing with your standard everyday morons I simply did not have the energy to educate them about the type of fluid they could expect to receive from their goat's testicles.
Was arguing with a tried and true idiot recently. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Then an epiphany, who's the real idiot? Him (definitely) or me (maybe) for arguing with probably one of the dumbest beasts on the planet. Just turned around and left mid sentence as there was no point in continuing.
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"Facts are like unicorns. They're difficult to prove, and they make you horny" LizzieBoredom
It is a personal boundary of mine: I will not hold any discussion with someone who is not willing to listen and possibly gain a new perspective on the matter. If you're only listening to wait for your turn to talk, then I have nothing to say to you.
Learn this as young as possible because after our last election I hurt my mind trying to speak to the other side of a political spectrum where people believe in allllllll sorts of very weird stuff and we’re so very certain. I eventually learned to just ignore and not give anything I learned or know. Let them speak of non-sense and things that are proven false or conspiracies. I just gave up and then realized, I should have never even tried lol. Lesson learned, you can’t win an argument if the person has been so brainwashed.
You can't use reason to unconvince a person of an argument they didn't use reason to get to in the first place.
If flat earth theorists had a simple course in navigation, an entirely new world would open up to them.
I'll allow that my certain knowledge that the Earth is not flat may be coloring my judgment, but I've actually never heard any plausible-sounding arguments from a flat-Earther. Not that it matters, since what's true or false has never been decided by debate. That requires actual evidence. All debate decides is who's the more convincing bullshítter - and even that's debatable. ;-)
My argument would be something along the lines of "jog on nutjob"
I made a comment once concerning the weather and a climate change vigilante started ranting. I asked him what the difference was between climate change and weather. He ranted some more but basically he boiled it down to warmer temperatures than average was climate change. So I asked him what colder temperatures than average was. He said that was just weather. I shook my head and walked away.
Not an actual climate change vigilante, then, just someone who misunderstood the concept and got weird on the subject.
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Also, arguing with these people (flat earthers and antivaxers especially) only validated their point. They want a debate - opinion vs opinion. When what they have is facts vs opinions. Engaging makes their opinion feel like fact.
Sadly this effect was proved in the UK during the Brexit referendum. Fact based arguments completely failed to overcome the totally spurious beliefs of those who voted for Brexit. Research has shown that almost nobody changed their view during the campaign, and even now- 7 years and an economic crisis later- very few who voted for Brexit admit it was a mistake. The most common view held by Brexit voters in 2023 is that it was a good idea that was nadly executed and undermined by a shady remain elite establishment. It's the political equivalent of a dad getting lost in the car, but refusing to acknowledge the fact and refusing to ask a stranger for directions.
U can't argue with stupidity. They will make up facts if needed, just to justify their point
I have watched my father (a commercial pilot, as well as a veteran military pilot) struggle to deal with people who will try to convince him that the earth is flat. He's been around the whole earth multiple times. He's surrounded by friends and colleagues for whom this is an _everyday_ occurrence, and fact of their lives. And yet still some person, who knows he is a pilot, will try to convince him to his face that he's basically stupid and hallucinating. My father is an incredibly genial fellow. I can count the things that actually make him mad on my fingers. Flat-earth beliefs are one of those fingers. A lot of the folks that believe conspiracy theories and similarly extreme beliefs think they have a mission of revealing the truth. But what they really have is a mission to convince as many people as possible that what they've already decided to believe in is true. It's a crusade, and as the OP points out, to them, it's their very identity, their very sense of self they are defending.
Life's short; choose your battles. That's really what it boils down to. Even IF you could sway them on an issue, their narrowly-focused, conspiracy-prone minds would find another face-palm issue. Go pet a dog instead.
I have found the best response to these people is that when they say this garbage, stare at them blankly for a full beat, then burst out laughing as heartily and loudly as you can, and just walk away. It makes them FURIOUS and you don't have to deal with them because you walked away. Bonus points? Anyone overhearing the exchange now sees THEM as the idiot.
Why I don't argue with those conspiracy nuts? Because they did not base their point on scientific facts. And I only have those as my arguments. You can't convince someone with science who completely rejects science itself.
Exactly, at some point you realize that they are not going to change their minds so its best to just let them believe what they want.
This. Such a waste of time, energy and sanity to try to convince such people of anything really. You're not going to convince them any more than they will you.
I stopped trying to convince my dad global warming is real when he said in all seriousness "if global warming is real why is it colder this winter?" Explaining how global warming has thrown off all weather patterns, not just summer weather patterns, just went in one ear and out the other.
Creationists I have spent a great amount of time studying so I can refute. Though, you never get ahead. Some of their new arguments against radiometric dating are just insane. Also, Donald Trump is a great business man -- nope.
The fact that none of the responses use the anti vaxxer as an example of a pointless argument kinda speaks for them...and their 'research'
I usually go with, "I'm sorry you feel that way." then turn and walk away.
I don't debate angry morons. However, it's fun to deal w/"friendly" ones (meaning those not simply looking to antagonize). Ask them questions. The Earth is flat? Really? How about other planets? The sun? Are they just flat, like a pizza? Or just not a round ball? How about their orbits? Are they square? Do they move at all? Does the flat Earth move around the sun (or the moon around the Earth)? You can keep going for a while just asking for "real" info, since all we have been taught is BS. I've only done that a couple of times, but the response has been "I'll look into that too!" or "You should look it up!" to which of course I sound disappointed they don't know already & can't educate me. Hope springs eternal, so perhaps it infiltrates some doubt.
Fools argue with fools. The wise stay quiet whilst others admit their foolishness freely.
Silence is complacency at best and complicity at worst.
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Yet, you can have some fun with these guys, as it is so easy to mock them with their own arguments, and see them squirm when you put some really hard questions to them that is completely outside their knowledge, but core to what they are claiming.
A friend I thought I knew really well became a Trump supporter, basically proving we no longer shared the same values. She went so far as to claim she was "Pro-Life". Oh, really? Was that before or after I took you to the clinic for your SECOND abortion? This went way beyond the "agree to disagree" mantra & the friendship was pretty much over.
I use the same method with religious people. I don't bother arguing about their invisible friend.
I was just about to comment the opposite - some people make mocking vegans and eating meat their entire personality, and showing them anything evidence based is completely pointless!
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Not my story but once my friend (friend A) was having a friendly (turned sour) debate with another friend (friend B) about how sometimes people just don’t have a choice, in the context of, they can’t just choose to live a frivolous life because of their family background etc.
Friend A proceeds to say, “what about starving children born in Africa, it’s not like they had a choice.” To which Friend B answered....”WHO ASKED THEM TO BE BORN IN AFRICA? JUST DON’T BE BORN THERE.”
That’s when we knew.... :—)
I’m showing my age here but I used to work for an estate agency, and we had sales offices set up at the site of large new housing developments. Our primary method of communication was fax.
One of the sales associates telephoned our office to say that the fax machine had run out of paper. No problem, I said, one of the guys is coming your way later for a house tour, I’ll give him a box of paper to give to you.
We then had an almost 20 minute long argument when they kept insisting “NO, YOU JUST SEND ME A BLANK FAX BECAUSE I NEED THE PAPER, IT WILL JUST COME OUT OF MY FAX MACHINE.”
It was like trying to nail jelly to a tree. Difficult, irritating, and it achieved nothing :)
My good buddy wrote his capstone thesis on something about Islam. The dude spoke Arabic, is smart as hell, a history nut, and consumes books like they are skittles.
Anyway, he got into a long debate on Reddit with someone. He started showing sources, teaching the guy, etc. Anyway, he was about 500 words into a mega retort when he decided to actually look up the dude’s posting history. Turns out that dude was a "Drink Your Own Urine" evangelist.
I feel like that is Reddit in a nutshell.
I grew up Jewish in Oklahoma. I ran into this a lot.
Had a classmate in middle school try to convince me that Christianity predates Judaism.
I told him, "But Jesus was Jewish."
His response: "Exactly!"
No irony. Totally genuine. Conversation over.
As everyone in Alabama knows, Jesus was a blond-haired, blue-eyed, Baptist who wandered around Israel 2000 years ago, right after the Earth was created.
Once worked with a guy who, by his own admission, got his rocks off by picking fights. He'd start an argument over the smallest thing. If you said it was white, he'd say it was black, just to try to start something.
The one that always stood out for me was the weather app competition. One day he asked me what temperature it was, so I read it off my weather app. He got all offended, because his weather app said it was a couple degrees warmer.
So he decides we're going to have a weather app competition. He was going to chart what our apps said the temperature was, and at the end of the week, whichever one was closest to that day's high would be the winner. And the loser would have to start using the winner's app.
To which I said, "What is your f*****g problem?"
So, yeah. For the first few days, he'd make a big performance about marching into my office, recording the temperature off my app, jotting down some notes, and walking off.
This started on a Monday. He gave up after Wednesday. Either because I was winning, or he was disappointed because, despite his best efforts, I just did not give a f**k about weather apps. Or maybe the boss told him to stop because I filed a complaint that this was bordering on harassment.
I used to argue a lot with my sister when we were kids. She would do this thing where she would say something, and then I would reference back to it literally a minute or two later to prove a point and she would say “I never said that” or “that’s not what I said”. Absolutely impossible to argue with someone who will just deny having said things that could hurt their argument.
Also, trying to change the course of an argument if they feel like they are “losing”. A coworker once called me an idiot for doing something “incorrectly” when I was actually doing it the right way. When I politely explained to them that the way they suggested doing the task didn’t actually work, they started asking “why are you getting so angry?? I was just trying to help” etc. So now we’re arguing about whether I’m angry or not instead of the right way to complete the task.
Not saying my mother is an idiot but boy does she lean hard on some stupid beliefs.
For example: I bring up that European countries have universal healthcare (Sweden is a good example) and she immediately fires up the *"but they're taxed to death to pay for it"* argument. In my research, a US resident gets taxed about 12% more (42% on income) than a Swedish resident (30% on income).
My grandmother swears that praline pecans grow on trees. Yes, pecans grow on trees, but she believes they grow on the tree candied. Like, they come off the tree candied. She won't listen to any of us when we try and tell her otherwise, so we just gave up.
When I tell people to just reboot your computer and it will fix all their problems and yet they wont because they said if you wait long enough it will shut down, when in reality it only goes to sleep. Then when I tell them they have to completely shut it down they look at me like I'm an idiot and say they did. I tell them it seems like it but it only went to sleep. They argue back.
No wonder Roy and Moss just had their instructions on a prerecorded tape so they wouldn't have to argue with the callers
My mom complaining how my generation wouldn’t know how to do anything if it wasn’t posted on the internet. I simply responded, “Well, what else is that generation supposed to do when the generation that raised them didn’t teach them how to do anything?”
Keep in mind this while I’m moving files from her old Windows 8 laptop to her new windows 10 for her via flash drive. She can’t figure it out because “windows 10 is totally different!!” Obviously, it’s not.
Older generations wouldn't have known anything if it wasn't printed in a book. It the same concept, just a different format and quicker to access.
Working retail. Especially when I worked in the tech shop od a computer store. Trying to convince someone their $500 laptop is never going to be a gaming system no matter how many of the very few replaceable parts we throw at it can be exhausting...
What do you mean, even if I put a turbo on my Pinto I can't dragrace it ??
Brexit is a classic example of this. It was always an extremely stupid idea and they managed to beat enough of the population down to make it reality.
When I was a child a teacher argued with me about how my name is pronounced. Some sports guy had a first name that was spelled the same as my surname, and I guess that was the only acceptable pronunciation regardless of what little ten year old me tried to tell her.
My brother in law loves to have "debates" where he just wants to hear himself talk to make himself feel smarter. His arguments include "I haven't heard of that before, so it must not be true" and pulling argument points from YouTube videos on the topic because he "doesn't read, why would I when I can get the info faster from a video?"
He sprays paint as his career and has never been to college but took calculus in high school and that is his proof he is smarter than everyone else. When it is brought up all he says is "oh yeah, I remember calculus, it is as easy." What is it about? "You know... Calculus. Easy stuff."
I stopped engaging him on his debates when he just claimed everything was a government job and everything was "fake news, didn't see it on YouTube."
was arguing with this dude about something math-related. he didn’t know how to read a study which involved statistics. claimed he was in multiple AP math classes. tried saying that i “probably don’t even know basic integration”. gave me a common integration problem. he wrote it but forgot the minus sign, making it unsolvable. i pointed it out and he edited the comment to make it correct. told him that some people can see when you edit comments. he claimed that he just capitalized a letter. on and on and on…
Never drink from a glass of water containing 8 ice cubes. It's too cubed.
A driver fell asleep at the wheel for a brief moment. The passenger noticed the car drift into the oncoming lane and exclaimed ‘Jesus Christ’ in fear. The driver woke up and turned the car back to their lane. It was impossible to have the passenger (and their whole family) admit this was not evidence that Jesus himself saved them. I was exhausted by the end of that conversation.
So many times.
So, I'm on my condo board, again. Sigh. Because being on the board means a lot of dealing with idiots. The worst thing is, they aren't normally stupid people, most of them, until they focus on some minor issue.
Anyway - sensor for the lights in our laundry room failed. We replaced it. I get a knock on my door from an owner, who I'll call Bonnie,because f**k Bonnie.
Anyway, she's upset because the sensor still isn't working properly. Now, the issue is the lights won't turn off.
"I stood in there for 15 minutes, and they didn't turn off! It's wastes electricity!"
"Bonnie, the sensor keeps the lights on as long as somebody is in the room. And you were in the room. So, the lights couldn't turn off. "
that's teh condensed version - so, after about ten minutes of her not grasping that being in the room means the light sensor won't turn them off...
Well, the laundry room is in sight of my condo. So, when we hit the ten minute mark, and she's not in the room but instead, in my face... the lights go off. And I point that out.
"I thought you said you would be a good president!"
thank god she's now so "scared" of me she wouldn't say s**t with a mouth full.
Had an employee sign a NDA about an upcoming art installation that had investors. He told everyone. He argued with me the NDA only meant he couldn’t disclose anything with the people in the company.
Ok - this'll get buried, but it was and still is hilarious to me.
Waayyyy back in the day I was a bill collector for travel trailers and mobile homes. This woman had promised to mail her check for the payment, and lo and behold it doesn't appear.
So I call her, and reference back to our prior conversation I say "You promised you'd mail this to me, and it never arrived." this wasn't particularly contentious. It more along the lines of "I thought we had an agreement and now I'm dissapointed."
So this woman, who was probably 30, really dumb and kinda country says to me "I did mail it. But the post office figured out that I didn't have enough money and sent it back to me so it wouldn't bounce."
My sarcastic reply: "I don't understand how that could happen."
She responds, completely sincere "I don't understand it either."
Literally wordless after that one
Trying to get an old person to understand new technology when they have already decided against using it.
My grandmother refused to use the stacking washer/dryer in her retirement apartment because it was "too complicated." Same buttons as the one at her previous home, just in a slightly different place.
Some “old people”. My aunt (85 at the moment) edits videos like a pro. I can’t find the time to learn.
Someone posted an article that provided direct evidence against what he was claiming. Pointed it out and he said "I didn't know it was in that article or I wouldn't of used that one"
Yikes, doesn't even know the difference between "have" and "of"
I thought I had a no-lose argument going up against someone who believes in homeopathy.... I left the discussion feeling like I lost somehow :(
Edit: Appreciate all the comments. Some very funny replies! Just a quick clarification, I was specifically referring to homeopathic dilutions as far as the argument/discussion went.
I "felt" like I lost because I was dumbfounded by their argument and realised quickly that it was a belief system that I was up against and didnt want to waste either of our time (the person being a naturopath that my wife used to go to). They had obviously had this argument many times and had various convoluted responses to all your standard points. Essentially, they had more experience in this argument than me.
Thankfully, that interaction resulted in my kids no longer having to take so much "medicine" which was my main issue because I could see that it was eroding their confidence. Sure, its just water so it cant do any harm right? Wrong, it meant every time they saw the naturopath they would come home with a whole new set of ailments and the eventual thinking of "what is wrong with me??". There was never anything wrong with them.
Homeopathy had been a thorn in my side for years. My now ex wife used to take medical advice for how to treat our kids from her homeopathic sister. They would never let me get to the part where I explain homeopathy. Not that I am sure it would have helped my SIL, but possibly my now ex wife. It should be illegal to sell homeopathic snake oil next to real medicines.
Even though they're wrong they'll still carry on the argument and then when you've convinced them they'll say yeah that's what I said trying to make you look the fool.
Had plenty of arguments like that.
People who tell me they "feel like" something is or isn't illegal, when I know they're wrong but insist they know what they're talking about. For the record, I'm not a lawyer yet, but I'm about to start my final year of law school, AND my undergrad is in Legal Studies. In one particular instance, I took a very specialized course that taught drone law. The person I was this with kept telling me I was wrong because they "felt like...."
There are a lot of perfectly legal things that just somehow feel wrong, although not to everyone. Regardless, they’re still legal, and will continue to be legal until the law changes. That’s just the way it is.
I had a coworker for a few years. I tried and tried to give him advice on doing a job that I had been doing for years. He repeatedly told me he didn't appreciate my advice, that he had won awards in his past job and to stay in my lane. Finally we did a project together and he admitted that I really did know what I was talking about and he actually thanked me.
But he continued to gaslight people and be a narcissist
I work at a club where the bouncer gives you a card when you enter. The card has multiple lines with squares on it, each one being a different drink (vodka, gin, tequila, etc) and the barmen just make an X on the drinks you order. All mixers are free except Redbull. At the top of the card there's a line that reads "Redbull mix". It's also the cheapest thing on the card.
I've had a customer order a "Redbull mix" and literally argue with me for about 10 minutes demanding that I serve it while I calmly explained to them that line is only a mixer and they actually have to order something else. They eventually asked for a manager that just told me to mark it and serve them a shot of Redbull. The look on the customer was priceless. They were as pleased they "won" the argument as they were disappointed paying 2,50€ for a sip of Redbull.
Anytime I've tried to explain marginal tax rates to an employee.
Never argue with an idiot — they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
a wonderful paraphrase of Mark Twain I was about to make as well
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@Sherry I don't mind it if people have a different opinion to what I write but I very much do mind when people tell me that I shouldn't write something. I'll continue to "drag political figures into the mix and write anything else I feel is relevant to a post.
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Dude in an elevator sees my tat that's written in Armenian and asks me what language it is. I tell him. He replies, sounding genuinely stoked: "Oh you're Armenian?? That's cool! I'm Turkish! We're neighbors!" For those of you who don't know...the two countries are indeed neighbors, but the Turks tried to commit genocide on the Armenians in 1915 and stole a ton of the land. Not very neighborly if you ask me.... I don't have anything against modern day Turkish people, but...like...that's like a German telling a Jew "You're Jewish? How cool! I'm German!" There's just certain things people shouldn't say...lol
I honestly don't see the problem. Like a German can't say that to me (Dutch) because of WWII. Still a fact he's my neighbour
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“Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, the bird is going to sh!t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.” ― Shannon L. Alder
My dad used to tell me that bad drivers were in a hurry to meet their accident. So just give them the way on. I just feel there's immense road foolishness. Let it go.
I hate it when people keep moving the goalposts in an argument and then try gaslight me that they're not and I just didn't understand what they were saying. Um, I've taken multiple advanced classes in rhetoric. I understand language extremely well. And in an online argument, there are screenshots so gaslighting is useless.
I had a roommate in uni who studied literature, and I studied microbiology. I once said that I thought that science students had better general knowledge than humanists because they were more exposed to culture, read fiction and so on. I was kinda trying to provoke her, but she then replied that science (every field) did not count as general knowledge! I was stunned and did not try to argue with her, realising it was pointless. We did not remain friends. I still am amazed by the number of people who think that science is trivial and boring.
Had a customer at the pub I used to work at who we nicknamed "Encyclopaedia" I was serving him one day and we got into an argument about how you can get done for DUI on a bicycle. He was adamant you couldn't and I literally had another customer going "I've been done for DUI on my bike". I got the whole bar involved, including my managers, and he ended up storming out thinking he was right. It was so much fun
Here you can get fined for being drunk in public. Won't happen though until you're a nuisance
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Had an argument with someone that "gasoline would cost more if we (the U.S.) changed over to the metric system, because 4 litres cost more than a gallon". Sadly, if we ever do switch to the metric system, they will probably raise the price of gasoline to pay for the transition and then he'll claim that he was right.
Maybe that's what he meant but you just didn't understand it?
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Religon. I gave up arguing with people who always have God and the religion as the biggest and the best and often the only argument. I'm exhausted, dad.
my friend group is complaining abotu something veery stupid and i don't know if im the wrong one here. two of the friends in my friend group like to do backflips of swings at max height ,but one of my teachers saw that and gave them a talk and banned them from doing that. i always felt like it was way too dangerous so i didn't care that she banned them. the next day these two friends are very mad at one of my teachers. they start comparing BACKFLIPS of F*****G SWINGS at MAX HEIGHT to cartwheels and other gymnastic things another group of girls are doing. they are sayign things like " we doing backflips ( of f*****g swings) in a safe manner ( not safe at all) and they are doing f*****g cartwheels and they are banning us such a sexist school ( not)" " they can fall on their head and paralysed too ,but they are getting mad at us" "we wouldn't be doing backflips of swings if we didnt knwo how to land ( my mind: dude you cna still get hurt badly by something even if you a professional)
comment countinued: i try to say their arguments are insanely stupid ,but they are like " you don't have to disagree with everything i said" ( coming from the guy who once said bill gates can give everyone a billion dollars and still be a billionaire) " STOP F*****G DISAGREEING". am i right here. if i am, am i good friend for disagreeing. should i ignore them
Load More Replies... Never argue with an idiot — they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
a wonderful paraphrase of Mark Twain I was about to make as well
Load More Replies... These posts are a perfect explanation as to how the likes of Trump and Boris Johnson were elected. My head hurts.
@Sherry I don't mind it if people have a different opinion to what I write but I very much do mind when people tell me that I shouldn't write something. I'll continue to "drag political figures into the mix and write anything else I feel is relevant to a post.
Load More Replies... Dude in an elevator sees my tat that's written in Armenian and asks me what language it is. I tell him. He replies, sounding genuinely stoked: "Oh you're Armenian?? That's cool! I'm Turkish! We're neighbors!" For those of you who don't know...the two countries are indeed neighbors, but the Turks tried to commit genocide on the Armenians in 1915 and stole a ton of the land. Not very neighborly if you ask me.... I don't have anything against modern day Turkish people, but...like...that's like a German telling a Jew "You're Jewish? How cool! I'm German!" There's just certain things people shouldn't say...lol
I honestly don't see the problem. Like a German can't say that to me (Dutch) because of WWII. Still a fact he's my neighbour
Load More Replies... “Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, the bird is going to sh!t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.” ― Shannon L. Alder
My dad used to tell me that bad drivers were in a hurry to meet their accident. So just give them the way on. I just feel there's immense road foolishness. Let it go.
I hate it when people keep moving the goalposts in an argument and then try gaslight me that they're not and I just didn't understand what they were saying. Um, I've taken multiple advanced classes in rhetoric. I understand language extremely well. And in an online argument, there are screenshots so gaslighting is useless.
I had a roommate in uni who studied literature, and I studied microbiology. I once said that I thought that science students had better general knowledge than humanists because they were more exposed to culture, read fiction and so on. I was kinda trying to provoke her, but she then replied that science (every field) did not count as general knowledge! I was stunned and did not try to argue with her, realising it was pointless. We did not remain friends. I still am amazed by the number of people who think that science is trivial and boring.
Had a customer at the pub I used to work at who we nicknamed "Encyclopaedia" I was serving him one day and we got into an argument about how you can get done for DUI on a bicycle. He was adamant you couldn't and I literally had another customer going "I've been done for DUI on my bike". I got the whole bar involved, including my managers, and he ended up storming out thinking he was right. It was so much fun
Here you can get fined for being drunk in public. Won't happen though until you're a nuisance
Load More Replies... Had an argument with someone that "gasoline would cost more if we (the U.S.) changed over to the metric system, because 4 litres cost more than a gallon". Sadly, if we ever do switch to the metric system, they will probably raise the price of gasoline to pay for the transition and then he'll claim that he was right.
Maybe that's what he meant but you just didn't understand it?
Load More Replies... Religon. I gave up arguing with people who always have God and the religion as the biggest and the best and often the only argument. I'm exhausted, dad.
my friend group is complaining abotu something veery stupid and i don't know if im the wrong one here. two of the friends in my friend group like to do backflips of swings at max height ,but one of my teachers saw that and gave them a talk and banned them from doing that. i always felt like it was way too dangerous so i didn't care that she banned them. the next day these two friends are very mad at one of my teachers. they start comparing BACKFLIPS of F*****G SWINGS at MAX HEIGHT to cartwheels and other gymnastic things another group of girls are doing. they are sayign things like " we doing backflips ( of f*****g swings) in a safe manner ( not safe at all) and they are doing f*****g cartwheels and they are banning us such a sexist school ( not)" " they can fall on their head and paralysed too ,but they are getting mad at us" "we wouldn't be doing backflips of swings if we didnt knwo how to land ( my mind: dude you cna still get hurt badly by something even if you a professional)
comment countinued: i try to say their arguments are insanely stupid ,but they are like " you don't have to disagree with everything i said" ( coming from the guy who once said bill gates can give everyone a billion dollars and still be a billionaire) " STOP F*****G DISAGREEING". am i right here. if i am, am i good friend for disagreeing. should i ignore them
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