r/hatethissmug • u/Sudden-Hoe-2578 • 10h ago

Non-fictional I HATE these "gotcha arguments"

Post image

"Ohhh, look how I tricked this dumb dumb baby in my trap so now I am right and they are wrong. I'm so smaaart even though it does not adress the actual argument and adds nothing to the debate. They teach arabic numerals in school btw."

And these type of comments always get tons of likes

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29

u/BoringPoolPlaying 10h ago

The point is to show how knee jerk and thoughtless people are about these things they’re apparently extremely passionate about.

All it takes to rile up right wingers is “litter boxes in classrooms”, “they’re eating the pets”, “they’re trying to take over women’s sports (which you do nothing but shit on)”, “they’re going to implement sharia law”.

Hopefully someone sees something like this “gotcha” and goes “hmm, maybe I should put a little more thought into whether something is just being used to rile me up?”.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 10h ago

Well if it was me the only thought going through my mind would be "oh, I guess i cant trust this person I am speaking to be honest with me"

The reason the tactic works so well is because the person being asked is already primed by the topic of conversation. They would have no reason to expect an image presented as actually being entirely irrelevant. That is just not typically how good faith human conversations works.

No one's opinions on when life starts is going to be alterred by mistaking a human foetus for a dolphin foetus - they probably also dont want the dolphin foetus to be aborted either for the exact same reasons. Frankly it would be kinda ridiculous to expect it to change anyone's mind. It is just a base gotcha and little more

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u/BoringPoolPlaying 10h ago

Nope. But people’s opinions on people who feel strongly about taking away women’s bodily autonomy might be.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 10h ago

I highly doubt that frankly. These gotchas exist for and by people who already feel strongly about those seeking to take away bodily autonomy. There is no change of opinion there for anyone.

Beyond that if a person was to be convinced by a gotcha like this, then that is just kinda stupid and silly. It is terrible argument and should not reasonably convince anyone of much of anything.

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u/BoringPoolPlaying 10h ago

It’s convincing that the people arguing to take away women’s bodily autonomy don’t actually know fuck all about what they’re so passionately talking about.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 10h ago

It doesnt convince anyone who doesnt already think that. It is nothing but a cheap dunk in an attempt to shut the other person up.

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u/BoringPoolPlaying 10h ago

Well, if it shuts someone like that up, that’s a win for everyone.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 10h ago

That is also called engaging in bad faith. 99% of the time it doesnt even really work. The same people still continue to hold and propagate the same opinions, just no longer in that conversation.

You'd get about as much utility out of it by simply blocking and moving on. The gotcha doesnt actually do anything but achieve a cheap dunk

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u/BoringPoolPlaying 9h ago

If you say so.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 9h ago

I did. Seems you don't have much to say in response.

Good talk I guess 🤷‍♂️

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u/BoringPoolPlaying 9h ago

As did I, and it didn’t seem like you had much to say in response other than “nuh uh”.

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u/PimpasaurusPlum 9h ago

That is certainly an interesting way of seeing someone dealing directly with what you said and presenting a counter opinion. Seems you just have a problem dealing in good faith

Have a lovely rest of your day

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