Tuesday 31 January 2017

That's not how you debate

I wrote this on Facebook earlier:

 "I was taught that debate goes like this:
1. Person or Group A makes an evidence-backed claim.
2. Person or Group B disagrees but support it with their own evidence.
Not:
1. Repeat step one.
2. Person or Group B disagrees and either yells at A to find evidence to support B's argument or demands that A find evidence for the claim A has already given evidence for.
3. B engages in insults if A points out the absurdity of this.
The latter seems to be increasing in popularity..."

I was inspired to write the post because in the past couple of days, on a discussion I noticed a bunch of people criticising some statistics but they offered no evidence to support their claims, although the statistics had a source themselves. When I politely asked for sources to be provided, the response was the people insulting me and demanding that I provide evidence to support the statistics that they were criticising. I ended up blocking a bunch of them because while for the most part I shrug off online insults, even my patience has limits when it comes to dealing with trolls.

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