[insert name here] are an idiot

[m_danson]

Have you ever gotten into a conversation/debate/arguement where you are carefully laying out your side in a logical arguement backed up with evidence only to have them respond with something that profoundly demonstrates either a complete lack of logical thought or a complete disregard for evidence

Comments

[eternitat]

Yup.

The other person often:

- gets emotional or even histrionic, even if it is not something that has affected the person very very closely or that emotionally charged of a topic.
- starts laying out the guilt trips. This totally skews objectivity and gives the wrong reason for making a given choice.

[m_danson]

Neither of those things happened. In this particular case he just went happily on his way and I stopped talking to him.

[lectrix_lecti]

I certainly do, online and in RL.

Then I employ tactics of restoring my faith in at least parts of the humanity, like watching an episode of Carnivale or dragging sane friends out for coffee.

Is there any way for a Rational NOT to become a pessimist when faced with humanity?
If there is, which I doubt, I'd like to know. Even if it's far, far too late for me.

I'm having one of those weeks.

[m_danson]

Dragging sane friends out for coffee... good idea.

I'm not sure if I'd call myself a pessimist but I'm certainly more pessimistic than I used to be.

I hope this week is better for you.

[lynkemma]

Have you ever gotten into a conversation/debate/arguement where you are carefully laying out your side in a logical arguement backed up with evidence only to have them respond with something that profoundly demonstrates either a complete lack of logical thought or a complete disregard for evidence?

Yes, far too frequently.

At that point does your mind yell "IDIOT" and do you lose all interest in further conversation with them (and maybe lose interest in ever talking to them ever again)?

Yes.

How do you deal with this?

By a lot of unhealthily surpressed anger that I'm gradually learning not to surpress. I am trying to express anger in a constructive way, but if I get angry enough I get to the point where I don't care about the consequences, and let rip. I love it when that happens :-)

Is there any way for a Rational NOT to become a pessimist when faced with humanity?I think if you just accept that yes, humanity = stupid, then you can let humanity get on with its stupidity and potter around quite happily on your own. In other

[m_danson]

There wasn't really any point in getting angry at the particular person in question. It would have been like yelling at my cat.

Denial... I'm not very good at that.

[spiritonparole]

I don't consider myself pessimistic. The majority of people I meet don't much impress me, so I don't really bother with them. I don't expect to impress many people, either; if you try to impress everyone all of the time, or align yourself with everyone else's world view, you wind up becoming inconsistent and nondescript. I pick my battles and don't bother about the rest

[m_danson]

The majority of people I meet don't much impress me, so I don't really bother with them. I don't expect to impress many people

hee hee... pretty much correct here as well although I've been told that attitude is wrong by various people.

It's mostly my own attitude I'm questioning here. I know it pisses me off when somebody just dismisses me yet I know I do it to others (in certain situations) as an automatic reaction. Sometimes it feels like my 'liking' someone can be turned off like a light switch being flipped.

[night_princess]

> I've been told that attitude is wrong by various people.

Everything is wrong to somebody. Besides, the idiot was the one who didn't bother to listen to or understand your arguments first. I see it as only fair and reasonable to not bother with the idiot as a result.

> I know it pisses me off when somebody just dismisses me yet I know I do it to others (in certain situations) as an automatic reaction. Sometimes it feels like my 'liking' someone can be turned off like a light switch being flipped.I tend to compartmentalize the damage. I can still like people in general but not like them when dealing with certain topics. For example, my SP friends are a lot of fun and great for sharing meals, playing games, and just hanging out, but I just don't try to seriously converse with them about abstract topics. My SJ work friends are great for talking about technical details and money matters, but I just laugh off their attempts at conversations about my lifestyle choices and make standard polite noises when they talk about their kids

[night_princess]

> I'll normally simply start avoiding more and more aspects about a person until I end up naturally not dealing with them any longer.

(Or until I find what's good about them.)

[marybagain]

About 85% of the population are Artisans or Guardians, so most people you Rationals meet are not going to think like you do. Maybe you should remind yourself of that and give up trying to change others to be the same as you are.

[m_danson]

A few of your assumptions are incorrect.

1) While most of the population are SP and SJ types I have had this happen with both NF and NT types as well. I specifically did not specify the type of person I was dealing with for that reason.

2) This post was not about changing the other person. I was not trying to change anything other than my specific reaction. Note that it says nothing about changing the other person. It says X happens and I react Y, how do I cope with reaction Y.

I am not attempting to change others to be the same as I am so your advice is not useful to me. If you have advice concerning how to deal with an automatic and irrational reaction on my part to this particular situation (ie how to not automatically tune out and dismiss a person who does X) then I would be glad to hear it.

[marybagain]

Ok - I see

[napoleonofcrime]

The most irrational thought I can think of is that all opinions are equally valid.