Two Phrases to Win Any Argument

I am amazed at foolishness of our world. Solomon was right when he said, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself ” (Proverbs 26:4). Of course we have not acquired this foolishness overnight but through the dumbing down of our education system as George Santayana stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner’s, 1905, page 284). And so today we have a whole generation, or two, who have no real understanding of the history of this country, what makes this country great, what makes this country distinct, and how quickly we can lose what we have had, giving up our freedom and becoming like many nations of the world who are less fortunate than we.

But even more amazing is the argumentation of those who are so foolish. In my opinion there are two phrases very common today that a person who is losing any argument will put forth in order to say, “Aha!, I gotcha. I win the argument.” I want to expose you to these two phrases and the fallacies behind them.

The first fallacious “Aha! I gotcha!” phrase is to say, “You’re a racist.” Personally, this phrase does not work on me because I do not believe in “races.” I am a culturalist. The whole idea of races springs from the Darwinian evolutionary theory which suggests that different “races” have evolved at different rates and so some “races” are not as equal as other races. If I were a “racist,” I would not allow anyone below my evolutionary station to even speak with me. There is only one race of people, the human race. The cultures that we see in our world have come about because of God confusing the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel. When God confused the languages of the people, as they found those with similar languages, those groups moved to the various parts of the world, and they took with them certain dominant genetic information in their DNA. They also took with them Biblical stories, and as their cultures grew, they developed certain cultural proclivities and biases. Over time some culture groups either lost or denied their Christian faith and developed other religions to take their place. Thus, there are good and bad traits within any and all cultures. The bottom line, however, is that calling someone a racist shows the foolishness of the one making the accusation and their own lack of understanding from where that accusation originates. One simple way to disarm the accusation of, “You’re a racist,” is to ask the questions, “What do you mean by calling me a racist? What is a racist?”

If the first fallacious phrase does not work, then the second may be offered, “I’m offended.” We live in a society that seeks ways to be offended. We look to take offense. This seeking to take offense springs from our sinful human nature and a passive aggressive attempt at foiling our foe through deception. More often than not people are not trying to be offensive, yet anyone wanting to cease any conversation or argumentation will seek to do so through throwing down the accusation of offense. This accusation of offense is meant to disarm the so-called offender because if one is offended, then the offender, it is presumed, must immediately cease the offense and apologize for the wrong they inflicted. The whole fallacy of this is, as stated, offense is not being given so offense should not be taken. One simple way to disarm the accusation of offense is to ask, “How did I offend you? My intent is simply to offer information to persuade you to understand, believe and accept my position.”

Of course all this leads us back to the question of whether or not we should engage the fool in the first place!