A Tip About Coming on Too Strong

[book_junkie007]

Okay, so I have something that's bugging me.

I got in a bit of a fight with a vegan on Twitter the other day about Urban Decay's decision to expand into China. She kind of pissed me off with her attitude: it was one of "I'm right, you're wrong, you must agree with me or I will keep yelling at you until you agree."

Now I'm a wannabe vegan: I want to eat vegan food as I hate cooking meat and dislike eggs, but I also live in a family of omnivores, where I really don't want to cook my food separate from everyone if I'm going to be the only one who eats it (although my siblings may eat it as well). To me, it's just easier to eat what everyone else is eating for supper, as we're pretty good at finding things everyone in our house is willing to eat.

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm 21, and I'm getting cranky in my old age (I'll probably start yelling at kids to get off my lawn pretty soon. :P), but it pisses me off when you're not willing to see both sides of a story. I like facts and equivalent examples when debating, none of which happened there. I usually look at both sides of an issue and declare both sides valid. I have no use for absolutes, as the world isn't absolute. There's too many shades of grey.

It's fine to be passionate about your beliefs, just be able to listen to the other side as well, or you're going to piss many people off, and it won't help recruit people to your cause, whatever it may be.

Comments

[inkvoices]

This is what I like to call the difference between a debate and an arguement. In a debate you actually listen to each other, take what each other says on board and respond to that, think about what you're saying, be open to other views, in fact be open to changing your own view because that does not mean losing, there is no losing in a debate, and at the end of it being able to step away, say good debate, and carry on treating each other like people. An arguement is where people don't really listen to each other, refuse to back down on anything they say or think, are basically just shouting their own opinion from the rooftops and demanding that everyone else take note.

I took an international relations module with a girl who did not understand this distinction at all or the concept of a devil's advocate and just couldn't grasp why I was willinging to chat to her about other things and smile at her afterwards, because to her we had disagreed and I was wrong and she just couldn't get past it.

I love a good debate! But save me from arguements.