• Steeve@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    You don’t debate for the sake of the person you’re debating with, you debate for the sake of everyone reading/watching it who hasn’t formed an opinion yet

    • greenskye@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      People’s lizard brains will tend to favor the person on the right. Because their arguments are simple, spoken with confidence and often louder. Our primitive instincts interpret that as ‘correct’ because it comes off as strong. The person on the left looks weak and full of excuses.

      People aren’t biologically capable of handling modern propaganda well.

      • Deiskos@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Confident bullshit wins over long-winded but factually correct explanations.

        Incidentally, same reason chatgpt became so popular - it’s optimized for sounding confident over being correct.

        • quackers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          Not the reason. It is an attribute it has, but the reason it’s popular is it’s ability to quickly summarize data rather than having to dig through many sources.

    • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      That number is always going to be far less than you imagine it to be. There’s very few fence-sitters anymore. And the chances that there a significant enough number of them is in the far corner of the internet where your augment with a douchebag RWNJ happens to be is incredibly small.

      No, best to just call them names, shame them, and move on.

      • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        You’ve formed an opinion on every topic ever? I’m impressed

        • Prandom_returns@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Probably one of those people who already know everything, and go “by their gut”.

          Incidentally, these people have never asked a question.

        • clearleaf@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          By the time I reach a comment section about it yeah. There’s no point debating politics because the other person will always see you as the fox news guy.

      • teuast@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        this is a law in the scientific sense, where its function is to describe a phenomenon that occurs in nature (or in society), not as in an authority is decreeing it so

      • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        When I say I don’t want any more Reddit users coming here because all they bring is centrist and conservative brains rotted past being useable, this is the kind of thing I’m talking about.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          It’s never great to generalize, I’m here from reddit and I know for a fact I’m not unique so there’s gotta be plenty more people like me that are on the left and here :)

    • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The only reason I argue on the internet (when I can be bothered) is so that people reading the thread will that an opposing opinion exists, not because I hope to convince the person I’m arguing with.

      • ☆Luma☆@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        I appreciate it. I’ve scoured an uncountable amount of debates over years and its helped me become aware of new ideas.

        I doubt I’d have woken up without them

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yeah.

        That also means that when the other person starts resorting to personal attacks you can point it out and let that discussion go, as they’re not going to be convincing anybody who is reading and thinking once have, by making it personal and insulting others, implicitly admitted that they don’t have rational arguments backing up their strongly held opinion.

      • Val@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        I do it in order to understand my own viewpoint more clearly. It is a lot easier to figure out what you believe when faced with things you do not believe.

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I think about this comment regularly. Genuinely drastically altered my perspective on arguing with internet strangers.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        8 months ago

        You probably can’t get them to admit you’ve won, but you can convince observers and sometimes them, later, after they’ve had time to internalize.

        Just accept that most people don’t have the ego to admit they’re wrong, or arguing against strawmen.

        And, if I may be so bold:

        Sometimes the person who needs to admit they’re wrong is you.

        (Not me tho)

    • girl@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I have won exactly one internet argument. I will remember it forever.

    • assembly@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They definitely can be won and I won’t be convinced otherwise! What makes you think they can’t be won man??? Cite your sources! I heard from my brothers dog walker that her sisters father in laws cousin wins them all the time. OWNED!!!

    • pascal@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      It depends on effort and money. Internet propagand made Americans vote for Trump and convince people can claim their own pronouns.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Fucking truth.

    They just keep smugly acting like they’re right and completely refuse to acknowledge anything presented to the contrary. Then act like they won.

    • rmuk@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      They did win. It’s tautological. They won because they think they won. If they loose they shift the goal posts so they win. You have to bring your arguments to them and they decide if they are valid. And when they get into a corner and can’t possibly win they win the only way possible: by making sure that when they lose, you lose more.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Fascism is where it leads. If a fascist doesn’t like what you are saying, they’ll just shoot you and walk away knowing they have won. That’s the natural extension of this dynamic.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Had this kind of shit happen, had 20 links backing up my debunk, he didn’t have one… he claimed it was some conspiracy

    I said “Okay, either it’s a grand conspiracy that all 20 of these competing news sites are working together, or Trump really did save those orphans from a church fire set by communists. Which is it?”

  • pascal@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    That’s exactly how I feel when I read a comment on Lemmy about someone justifying the wrath of Israel upon Palestine hospitals.