Everyone has opinions. \u00a0Most everyone things their opinions are correct and\/ or better than those of folks who feel otherwise. Some people feel so strongly about their positions on certain topics that they engage folks who believe otherwise in discussion. \u00a0There is nothing wrong with healthy debate. \u00a0It’s one of our rights as US citizens. \u00a0However, \u00a0like anything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to argue. \u00a0This is especially true when this debate takes place online instead of face to face.<\/p>\n
If you are the type of person who gets into these discussions, and perhaps even enjoys it, here are a few tips on what NOT to do to make your point effectively:<\/p>\n
#1 Name calling. \u00a0This should be obvious, but if you refer to folks who disagree with you in a derogatory way you aren’t going to change anyone’s mind.<\/p>\n
#2 Profanity. \u00a0Self explanatory.<\/p>\n
#3 Confusing facts with opinion. \u00a0Things like dates, temperatures, the laws of nature, and anything easily observable (i.e. that is an apple, that is a cloud, I am 45 years old) are facts. \u00a0The role of government in health care, the benefits of net neutrality, whether cats are better than dogs, etc. are opinions. \u00a0Interpretations of written documents – such as the Bible or the US Constitution\u00a0– are opinions. \u00a0Confusing the two makes you look at best self-important and at worst ignorant.<\/p>\n
#4 Broad generalizations based on very limited information. \u00a0Technically this falls under #3 but i so common that it warrants being addressed directly. \u00a0 Examples include: I met a Muslim once who was rude to me, so all Muslims are bad people, my friend used Product X and likes it, \u00a0therefore Product X is the best product ever made, and anything based on a celebrity endorsement.<\/p>\n
#5 Poor choice of source material. \u00a0The internet allows anyone to publish anything. \u00a0Just because you found a website that supports your claim doesn’t make you right. \u00a0I could, if i so chose, find websites to support claims that the Earth is flat, there is a master race of lizard people controlling the world’s governments, Michelle Obama is actually a man, fairies are real, or just about anything else you can imagine, in spite of all of those things being obviously false.<\/p>\n
I strongly support our right to free and public debate. \u00a0But let’s do it respectfully, intelligently, and properly, OK?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone has opinions. \u00a0Most everyone things their opinions are correct and\/ or better than those of folks who feel otherwise. Some people feel so strongly about their positions on certain topics that they engage folks who believe otherwise in discussion. \u00a0There is nothing wrong with healthy debate. \u00a0It’s one of our rights as US citizens. \u00a0However, \u00a0like anything else, there… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[24,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/talk-bubble-1174081-639x903.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}