I want to start an ongoing op-ed on how to win forum arguments. I'll fill in some more of my ideas with a few anecdotes as I go along, but I thought I'd start with my most basic and far-reaching observation: occupy the high ground. It is a great advantage in both the tactical and strategic sense.
There are, of course, different high grounds: the moral, the correct, the vulgar, and there may be others, but I'll deal with these three main ones.
First, in the moral dimension - by far the most important, there are certain considerations that bear examination. For example, if one is arguing with an anti-Semite, a racist, a misogynist or a bigot in general, one already owns the high ground assuming one is not also similarly prejudiced. Of course one's bigoted opponents realize this and may try to move one off that high moral ground, make one the bigot by claiming, for example, that Democrats, and I'm a Democrat, were the original racists is an attack that one often encounters, but they can't hope to occupy that high ground themselves, so one simply needs to remind any accuser of when that was and what happened since. Democrats elected a Black president, and I'm a Democrat who voted for him twice.
That should shut them up, and a sensible yet bigoted opponent, if there is such a thing, will quickly abandon that line of attack.
Of course, it helps immeasurably if one also abandons one's own prejudices, a task not easily accomplished, but one well worth the effort. I say this because a hypocrite can never hold the high ground, hypocrisy being a poor and undesirable example of the human condition to say the least, so it is imperative that one abandons prejudice and be forever on the lookout for it cropping-up in one's thinking since thought begets action - be brutally honest with one's self.
Now, before I go on to, I feel I should address hypocrisy more directly, and I will shortly....
There are, of course, different high grounds: the moral, the correct, the vulgar, and there may be others, but I'll deal with these three main ones.
First, in the moral dimension - by far the most important, there are certain considerations that bear examination. For example, if one is arguing with an anti-Semite, a racist, a misogynist or a bigot in general, one already owns the high ground assuming one is not also similarly prejudiced. Of course one's bigoted opponents realize this and may try to move one off that high moral ground, make one the bigot by claiming, for example, that Democrats, and I'm a Democrat, were the original racists is an attack that one often encounters, but they can't hope to occupy that high ground themselves, so one simply needs to remind any accuser of when that was and what happened since. Democrats elected a Black president, and I'm a Democrat who voted for him twice.
That should shut them up, and a sensible yet bigoted opponent, if there is such a thing, will quickly abandon that line of attack.
Of course, it helps immeasurably if one also abandons one's own prejudices, a task not easily accomplished, but one well worth the effort. I say this because a hypocrite can never hold the high ground, hypocrisy being a poor and undesirable example of the human condition to say the least, so it is imperative that one abandons prejudice and be forever on the lookout for it cropping-up in one's thinking since thought begets action - be brutally honest with one's self.
Now, before I go on to, I feel I should address hypocrisy more directly, and I will shortly....
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