Back and Forth

Quality Is Fleeting

…mediocrity is forever.

Terror Babies and the Failings of Using Intelligence to Argue Against Emotion

I have a new respect for Anderson Cooper after his conversation with Texas State Representatives Debbie Riddle and Rafael Anchia about the new ridiculous conservative talking point “Terror Babies” (I’m not sure who actually branded this or why every debate needs to have a horribly conceived title these days).

During the debate both Anderson and Rafael very coolly and effectively broke down her arguments and exposed the complete lack of evidence supporting this new ‘tactic’. He also, apparently, had a conversation with Rep. Louie Gohmert on the same subject which didn’t not go nearly as smoothly.

Learning to effectively deal with this type of situation (and person) is one of my most pressing goals currently and the video shows just how difficult it can be. When the person you are debating against is speaking purely from emotion no amount of logic will break down their fervor.

There’s more going on here, though, and I am starting to believe this is part of the strength of the ignorant. Once the pieces of an emotional argument are broken down and their flaws exposed, the person delivering the argument breaks down to the simplest root notion they are trying to convey. This is then repeated ad nauseum forcing the other party to either play along with their opponent and be contrary over and over and over again or step out of the discussion.

Both are losing situations, in the former anyone listening starts to lose sight of which of the debaters is the crazy one and in the latter you are basically just throwing in the towel, or losing.

You can see this in the video toward the end. And you can even see the moral dilemma in Anderson’s face, “Should I continue arguing or allow him rave on?” To be fair, anyone with any sense should see Gohmert for the uninformed buffoon that he is. But, I’m certain he’s taken similar positions in the past which hasn’t stopped him from being re-elected.

So, how do you handle this type of situation?

Google Voice Voicemail Transcriptions Finally Gets One 100% Correct

I was very surprised to finally see a voicemail today that was transcribed perfectly. Perhaps they are continuing to improve the algorithms? It was only two days ago that the phrase “I came across dot cripple death” was included as part of a message in my inbox. A little disconcerting, really, like some sort of morbid new web protocol.

Ah, Hypocracy

Source

When you debate with emotion instead of logic and facts, the reality of the situation can be skewed. Unfortunately, the general populace responds much better to emotion than intelligence.