Disclaimer: If I get all pointed like when I attack a reference, it is not at you. If I am attacking you I would not be skirting the edges of the knickers. I'd sidle up on to that runway and ram that bitch like there is no tomorrow.
Passionate discussions.
Arguments.
Heated debates.
They all have one thing in common. They are one and the same. They are basically the same shit being spoken about.
Where am I going with this?
In the last couple of days, I know I have ruffled some hairs and dug into topics that I know people are heavily vested into those positions/opinions. I'd like to think that there are no such things as a hidden truth in anything that involves a ton of people. In any good spy film or anything that you read there is one golden rule when you are trying to keep a secret.
The people involved are kept to a minimum.
It's why Al Qaeda were all splintered into small little cells because it made it harder for anyone to know what they were going to bloody do. Going off topic there. Or am I?
I was listened to a lecture years back. The one thing that stuck to my head was when the lecturer outlined their view on conspiracy theories. The happence of circumstance to look like there are connections are just that coincidence. Those that are looking for connection will also come to a conclusion that they have uncovered something. Going off topic again. Or am I?
Questions that I do ask have the tendency to sound pointed and come across aggressive. I know that when I reply and say things that are disparaging to the evidence presented are being laughed at. Ridiculed. And just downright downplayed. Each response I get I respond to in a more heated riposte, directed at the evidence but never directed at my opposite party.
Name calling. It really is a tool being used to try and win out an argument just so it makes the caller the winner in the argument. It stops the discussion by trying to label their opponent. I try and consciously refrain from doing that because I like to engage in verbal combat. To the nth degree. Till the voice becomes raspy. Till the veins start to pop out of the forehead. Till the breathing starts to get hot and heavy. The blood boils. The body shakes.
I like these feelings.
It's a great way to release tension when you get what ever is pint up inside of you about topics that are very confronting, silly and even life threatening.
But. I. Don't. Name. Call. Unless of course I think its time to just beat the shit out of you because you have crossed the line and the discussion is no longer the point/topic but about the character of the person you are speaking to.
So just remember, character assassination's may seem easy to you because you have nothing to really support an argument that can stand a beating. It's not a Socratic debate where we are working cooperatively drawing out ideas.
Or is it a Socratic debate, since while its heated we are drawing out ideas and critically challenging them.