Winning Thanksgiving Arguments: Don't Bother (Barf and language warning)

Every year around this time I perform the same ritual I've performed for years. In anticipation of family gatherings, holiday parties, and otherwise festive occasions, I comb through a year's worth of articles and factoids I've collected in Evernote or Pocket and prepare for battle. I spend hours arming myself with facts and evidence to fight back the impending and inevitable onslaught of baseless political claims sure to come my way from avid FOX News viewers and Ted Cruz fans.

Earlier this week I had started to write a post containing a few of those facts. I was going to write one of those catchy posts with a title along the lines of, "5 Arguments You Can Win at Thanksgiving." It starts out with a story about the crazy uncle we all have whose political views hover somewhere between conspiracy and insanity and tells you how to beat him into submission with a few handy facts and convenient links to great articles and infographics to back you up.

Halfway through the first or second draft, I started thinking about past gatherings and how I had never referred to those lists. In fact, more often than not most of the arguments had devolved into name calling and both parties questioning how we could be related to one another or how we had become friends. I went through all the possible counter arguments and claims I'd have to face down and rebuff. The list was getting increasingly longer.

Later that afternoon, frustrated that my days of preparation may be in vain, I walked into a place I regularly frequent and was accosted by a guy I don't know very well, but who somehow knows me....

I don’t find arguing with a leftist worth much effort but if it happens, I have a fairly easy time with it provided I don’t get emotionally involved at the inevitable end of the conversation. First, never introduce politics. Leftists will usually do that as they can’t keep their heads under control. Once they open their mouth, they nearly always make a snide “insiders comment” that is pure insult and not substantive. That is the opening to drag them through an endless list of challenges that will exhaust their shallow arguments and induce an emotional explosion. If they open with an insult of the Tea Party, just ask them questions like, Who are the Tea Partiers?, What are their positions? (you can explain the acronym), Is there an example? Why call them that (teabaggers)? Why would you refer to people who want responsible tax policy with that term—why does you refer to sexual perversion? Where did you learn this so I can learn more? Do you think the government should allow people to have opinions? What opinions should be legal?

I wear them down—doesn’t take very long, then they blow up and look like raging loon, which they are. I don’t react. I just exhaust them. Sometimes they raise some bizarre issue or event that is probably apocryphal (remember, they get made-up information from propaganda sources like CNN or MSNBC)so I just ask where I can learn more—if they cite a source I ask more questions like, didn’t that source publish a fake or deliberately wrong story? (you will always be correct because all leftist sources publish slanted and completely made up stories, for example, about a child heroin addict—NYT).

These are not stable people and I like to have fun with them. Let them open their mouths first then grab their discussion and drag them through heck with their own embarassing lack of sense.

I like your style there iacovatx. I do the same. It is the only way to go. You can really make a monkey out of them with an expertly constructed sequence of questions.

Sometimes I begin in a way that allows them to believe that I am a fellow liberal moron just to get them to really loosen up.

It’s fantastic entertainment to watch their face when you begin the subtle detour and they start to realize that they are revealing what a galactic dunce they are with their own words. Pass the gravy.

“galactic dunce”—you made my day by adding a new and useful term to my vocabulary.

There are some generic questions, that be there intellectual and broad nature, tend to suck leftists into contradicting themselves. A couple examples are, “What makes government good?” “More specifically, good enough to be given broad control over life?” “Is it smart to be vulnerable?” or “Is it smart to cower?” These latter questions might come in handy in the popular leftist attack on gun owners and the NRA. The Sandy Hook incident is the gold-standard among leftists for arguing for disarming the population. I don’t respond with the standard arguments about self-defense because the left is absorbed with illogical, emotional arguments that are impossibly disconnected from reality.

If I am being tough, and a point about children is made, I correct them with the term “wanted children”. To the left, there are two kinds of children, wanted or planned and those they deign as unwanted lesser beings.

If a point about differing opinions is being made, I correct them with, “unoffensive speech” and see if they will argue otherwise. Gradually work toward “acceptable speech”. There are lots of examples of suppression of what the left considers unacceptable speech and opinions. They will get into pretzel logic trying to avoid this term.

If a point is being made about schools, I correct them with the term “public schools”, then gradually work them toward “government schools”, which is more correct because they do not acknowledge religious or home schools. If they reject this term, their argument has to include the other types of schools—which it won’t. This makes them more self-conscious about their comments and produces pretzel logic again.

I find it useful to insert leftist terms into their own arguments because they sound ridiculous but expose their silly thinking.

Not every approach will work but apply 3-4 techniques and you will tie them into knots.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.