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I can win literally any argument.
| ur mom
| Imagine that you favor increasing the minimum wage in our state, and I do not. If you yell, “Yes,” and I yell, “No,” then you see me as selfish, and I see you as thoughtless. Neither of us learns anything, so we neither understand nor respect each other, and we have no basis for compromise or cooperation.
| In contrast, suppose you give a reasonable argument: that full-time workers should not have to live in poverty. Then I counter with another reasonable argument: that a higher minimum wage will force businesses to employ less people for less time. Now we can understand each other’s positions and recognize our shared values, since we both care about needy workers.
| What if, in the end, you convince me that we should increase the minimum wage because there are ways to do so without creating unemployment or underemployment? Who won? You ended up in exactly the position where you started, so you did not “win” anything, except perhaps some minor fleeting joy at beating me.
| On the other side, I gained a lot: more accurate beliefs, stronger evidence and deeper understanding of the issues, of you and of myself. If what I wanted was truth, reason and understanding, then I got what I wanted. In that way, I won.
| Admittedly, many arguments are bad. Constructive conversation becomes impossible—or at least much more difficult—if neither side gives any arguments or reasons for their positions. They pretend to give reasons without really presenting anything worthy of the name. When someone argues simply, “You must be wrong because you are stupid (or liberal or conservative),” they do not really give any reason for their conclusion.
| Still, we need to be careful not to accuse opponents of such fallacies too quickly. Nobody benefits if I misrepresent your position and then attack it viciously, or if I interrupt you so that you never finish your thought. We need to learn how to spell out arguments charitably and thoroughly step-by-step from premises to conclusion. Then we need to learn how to evaluate them properly — how to tell good arguments from bad.
| A large part of evaluation is calling out bad arguments, but we also need to admit good arguments by opponents and to apply the same critical standards to ourselves. (Why do I believe my premises? Is my argument valid or strong? Does my argument beg the question? What is the strongest objection to my view?)
| Next time you state your position, formulate an argument for what you claim and honestly ask yourself whether your argument is any good. Next time you talk with someone who takes a stand, ask them to give you a reason for their view. Spell out their argument fully and charitably. Assess its strength impartially. Raise objections and listen carefully to their replies. This method will require effort, but practice will make you better at it.
| These tools can help you win every argument—not in the unhelpful sense of beating your opponents but in the better sense of learning about the issues that divide people, learning why they disagree with us and learning to talk and work together with them.
| >>954005
There is no reason to ever buy a console. A good computer can do anything that a console can and more.
| >>954012 you are bad lawyer, i need someone who will tell me that Xbox is better than anything in any case.
| a case can't be made for that statement because its wrong from any way you look at it.
| Nope
| >>954022 GPU cost an arm and leg. You can't build a PC that performs the same as xbox with xbox price.
Also, it's easier to monitor kids on console, since if you let them have steam, they can just go buy hentai games, or school shooter simulator. Oh, they can also install queationable mods.
| zamn
| ZAMN!
| >>954072
Again, it's about versatility. You can do much more with a computer than you can with an xbox. Honestly, you can't even really compare the two for that reason. They're just two different things and one of them is better in essence because it can actually be used for something other than wasting time.
| >>954085 yes, PC is better, but for kids that only need to play games, a console is good enough. Doesn't matter if you build 2000$ PC that can render vids quickly or generate AI art if the user only need is to game.
Plus, it's a luxury item for kids, if parents can get away with something "good enough" and save 200-300$, I can't blame them.
| Mista white I'm goin schizo mode over here~!
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| try me