re: Just a reminder that one should never get into a debate with an overly emotional person

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Literally every single liberal argues this way

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This is blatantly wrong. It’s a tendency of a lot of them, but you are obviously limited, perhaps to Foxnews, in which they set up weak liberals to be owned by the conservative for your entertainment. Go tell Ira Glasser or Michael Kinsley this. I’ve watched many debates with liberals who behave with class and decorum.

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You can't debate with the insane

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No, but you can still go to the poliboard for a good laugh.

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Come on. Let's hear some details

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He said that Cantrell has governed NOLA too much like a Republican. Is for living wage and when myself or my little brother brought up who decides the wages and who decides what is considered a living wage or not he had no answer. Back to Cantrell in NOLA, he touted her renaming Robert E. Lee Blvd as a great political win and great for the city. Especially when you consider how insane crime is there. When I pointed out that that is nothing but a completely empty gesture and does absolutely nothing to help the city, he got real pissed and said something about MLK. I said that it would be safer to walk down Robert E. Lee Blvd than any MLK-named street in America he got super pissed and asked how I could compare the two then started calling me racist.

Threw around the phrase "don't y'all have any empathy for the people?" Which we both said making laws and rules and tax laws based on empathy is a terrible way to govern as it relies on feelings and not logic. He then said that we ought to go back to the 1950s style tax rate of 90% I informed him that the 90% tax rate that he's touting is false and that the top earners in this nation actually paid closer to 40% (which is still too fricking high if you ask me).

He kept claiming that there were no jobs to be had, and I said "I don't know what rock you've been sleeping under, but virtually every single business in America is hiring. In fact, I know of one company that is hiring truck drivers right now that is offering people a $10,000 sign on bonus. There's millions of jobs to be had right now, people aren't willing to work because they're getting paid not to work." His response: "I don't believe you, that's bullshite."

But my comment about MLK is what set him off and got him started in on the insults.

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My brother is the same. Refused to have me over for Christmas because I’m not vaxxed.

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Did you tell him that if his vaccination works, he shouldn't have anything to worry about?

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Hell yeah! I get your point, that there are a majority of knuckleheads, but the number of rational logical people is way more than 5%. I’d guess 20% to 30%.

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Rational? Sure. Logical? Not in any formal sense. Not that they are incapable; they've simply never been taught.

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Do you honestly believe over 5% of the population understands the difference between factual statements and arguments? And from there, can evaluate an argument down to its component parts: that the factual statements are true, that the argument is valid, and to therefore conclude that the entire argument is sound?

And I don’t mean that they know those terms. I mean that I don’t believe over 5% of the population even so much as approaches that kind of critical analysis before forming an argument, or before responding to one.

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You are overthinking this. It just takes a rudimentary understanding of the human ego and human psychology to understand the fundamental truth under all logic.

Most of humanity is overly emotional while also being stupid, including this board.

People like your brother are that way because they were coddled throughout life and are never challenged. If someone insists on turning every topic into a political debate and then they get overly emotional and irrational when you present them with facts counter to their world view than that is their problem. It is not your job to try and regulate a grown man or woman's emotions. If they push the conversation towards politics and do not like the answers and then hurl personal insults at you than just tell them to leave.