studcrackers wrote:Some people want to die on dumb hills
Yeah, not to derail, but I find this^^^ is often the root-cause of many of the flame wars we endeavor to put out:
*Someone makes a relatively dumb statement a little too off-the-cuff, or poorly researched/worded, or whatever the reason may be.
**Someone else calls them out on it (unfortunately, often a bit abrasive or disdainfully, which doesn't help)
***Person #1 could just say "my bad; I said that without really looking into it, but upon review I think...."
or
"perhaps I should have worded that differently...."
or whatever, and that would be the end of it. Not really losing any face in admitting error and making necessary correction. But some people will just dig in their heels and die right there, flayed alive by all the contrary facts and evidence that will be flung at them.
For some people, being very publicly
proven wrong (while further damaging their credibility by refusing to acknowledge it in the face of ever-mounting evidence) is preferable to just owning up to it at the start.
EDIT: this is NOT to say that there is always a right and a wrong in every debate. Often there is only a lot of grey area.
"The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it." -Edward Rutherfurd
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
