Seth Godin features a post on how to loose an argument. Personal favorites:

  1. Forget the pitfalls of Godwin’s law. Any time you mention Hitler or even Communist China or Bill O’Reilly, you’ve lost.
  2. Bring up the slippery slope. Actually, the slope isn’t that slippery. People don’t end up marrying dogs, becoming cannibals or harvesting organs because of changes in organization, technology or law.

Anytime I read a comment in the newspaper or on someone’s blog that features those two point I immediately stop reading or giving any intellectual credit to the writer.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Perspective

I didn’t really know Sarah until January. We both had vague memories of our time in Brazil 30 years ago (“You always had a backpack” she would remember, which sounds about right. “You were tall and loved to dance” I would remember. Which also right.) No matter. She was part of the most amazing (and exceptionally eclectic) crew of former Rotary Exchange Students participating in our reunion this year. And everyone loved her. She also was dying.

Read More »

Checkin. During a break.

Whatever happens, there will always be people who say: It’s all completely awful, and others who say: It’s all a complete joke. Koos Van Zomeren.

Read More »