Arguments

If you don't know what an argument is, or think you know but have never taken a logic or philosophy class, watch this Monty Python video. Maybe it'll just be a review that you can laugh at, maybe you'll only take from it that these folks are weird or that they have some funny things outside of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but whatever. Watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVuXQLNpjo&feature=related

To summarize, an argument is a collected set of premises aimed at proving or supporting a conclusion. For example, this guy is stupid (conclusion). Today I had someone confuse an argument with a debate and either way he would've lost because he had only a rudimentary understand of the subject.

It's not a very strong argument, but it's a quick example. I'll explain it more here.

In German we were learning the difference between wissen and kennen. Both mean "to know" but kennen is used with direct objects and wissen with clauses or pronouns, adverbs or negation. The sentence was ,,Das weiB ich nicht" (fun trivia, in German punctuation, quotes are done with two comma looking things and then backwards quotes usually used to start a quote in English). And we had to circle weiB and underline what it was modifying. Negation, adverb, pronoun were our choices since there is no other clause. He wanted to underline just nicht for the negation. Then I explained to him that it should also be das because that was a pronoun (meaning that). So what does he do? He underlines ich nicht. I said, "No, no, no. Ich is the subject. Otherwise it would say 'That doesn't know me,' which wouldn't make sense in the context." 

"Yeah, but, it's like negation, look, see? Nicht" then he did a stupid laugh to disarm me.

I wasn't even in my "You're an idiot, just listen to me" mood. I was legitimately trying to help him understand. I pointed to other sentences and said, "Yes, it's negation but it also has a pronoun. WeiB is modifying both," which might've been wrong but it was DEFINITELY modifying das. So he gives in and is like "Whatever, let's just move on."

Then we're writing a trivia questions for Illinois (in German), and I suggested "Did you know that Lincoln wasn't born there?" which in German vaguely looks like this ,,WeiBt du, Lincoln ist nicht in Illinois geboren?" But he wanted to say ,,WeiBt du, Lincoln war nicht in Illinois geboren?" I don't think anyone cares enough to go into the grammar of this, but war is used for things like "I was tired," or "I was there." Ist...ge- is used to say "I have run a mile," but more commonly would be translated to "I ran a mile." Both are past tense, but ist (more often haben) is required to say "I have..." so that people know you're talking about something you did in the past and is used in conversation. Ist is used for condition changes like birth or death, location changes, or some other things I forget. I only explain this because that was how I explained it to him. I gave him a refresher course on past tense and how war wasn't used with a ge-verb because it'd be like in English saying, "I was drove to the mall." It sounds ridiculous.

But here's his response. "Sure, let's go with it," fine, at least he's submitting to my superior knowledge. Then he adds "I don't wanna argue."

Really? You have to add that so I know that you don't agree but you're too stupid to explain your point which isn't a point at all? Everyone in that class is an A-student unless they don't do the daily work or are just god awful at tests and oral exams or don't show up. It's not a difficult class, but let's differentiate between my A and his. I get A's because I get 99/100 on tests and I only lose a point because I mixed up my bin and habe for past tense, or I forgot an obscure word in German like Abschluss. He gets A's because he's a suck-up and always shows up to class and always drops by the professor's office with little questions like "What's this word?" and it looks like he's trying hard, but he doesn't remember the answer for more than a class period.

 But he's not the only one who "doesn't wanna argue." People like to argue politics, and religion, and love and court cases. They like the big topics, giant overarching truths, or something controversial that makes them feel important even if they have shitty arguments. And when you corner them with an intelligent argument, they'll either spout off the rhetoric they heard someone else say, or they'll say "That's your opinion." GOD I FUCKING HATE THAT! Caps can not properly express my disdain for it. I nearly threw a shoe at the window just thinking about how people say it.

We live in a world where opinions "matter." Not to anyone else, not to reality, but to ourselves. They make us feel good inside. They raise our self-esteem. Forget that we're completely incompetent and ignorant. We have good self-esteem, so, yeah, hooray. No one likes to think that maybe they're wrong and maybe there is a right answer or a few good answers, and a shitton of bad ones. If you read The Gorgias by Plato, you'll understand. Rhetoric, as he uses it, means tricking people into believing you over the experts because you speak well. It doesn't matter that you don't know better than the experts.

Here's another example of people not wanting to argue because they have no intelligence. I was talking to a friend and I asked her if she'd ever get the bridge of her nose pierced or maybe the webbing between her thumb and forefinger. She, being a good Christian and very conservative except when it comes to sex, said "Ew! Gross!" as expected. I then asked, why that was gross when ear piercings aren't. I was legitimately interested in the subject and hoped she could provide some insight like "Earrings draw people's eyes to your face whereas a nose piercing draws it to just the nose," but instead she just kind of waved off the subject and said "Certainly people can overdo it, but I think one earring in each ear is pretty."

"No, it's not. Men that I know don't really likes earrings and you're not a lesbian so who are earrings supposed to attract?"

"I didn't say they were for attracting people. They're just pretty."

"But pretty implies attractive. The point of pretty is to attract someone. Women look pretty to attract men. Cars are painted pretty to attract buyers."

"Whatever. I just like them."

"But why?"

She doesn't have an answer for any of this and tries to derail me from the conversation. Then she started saying "Okkkkk!" or "Alright," "Mhmm," "Sure," etc. So I called her out on it, I told her she was an obstinate child with no mind of her own, hoping to invoke a little passion so maybe she'd continue the discussion. It definitely aroused her anger, but instead of providing some premise, she said "It's a dumb topic and I don't really care." 

A lot of you might agree. This is a dumb topic. It's certainly small, but how else do you argue something like having a mind of your own than through examples and generally examples are small. You think it proves that you have original or fresh thoughts by spouting off something about love and God and all this other stuff that you've been fed since you were two weeks old? I don't even disagree about God or love. I think there's love, but I try to have a fresh take on it other than just the bullshit quotes you get from sappy chick flicks that are about as realistic as fake boobs. But it's a lot easier to point to these habits people develop as a result of environmental conditioning than it is to sift through their grand theories on things they know nothing about. So yes, unless you get your ears pierced for a legitimate reason that you can explain to me that you have thought about and considered, I'm going to think you are just a product of your environment and another drone.

That's a bit harsh since most girls get their ears pierced as a child when they can't understand the effects of environment, and men seem to have better reasons for piercing their ears (e.g. they're gay and some gay men like ear piercings, women that the man is attracted to are easily distracted by shiny things), but women and girls, and I don't mean this as a sexist men are better than women thing, I mean this as an honest observation, women get their ears pierced for no reason and it's stupid and they should stop.

I didn't have anywhere to stick this, but I like saying it "Opinions are what the uneducated call their shitty arguments."