Meandering Musings: Educate Yourself

“I can’t do it for you.”

“Do your own research, I’m not here to hold your hand.”

“Here are some hour long videos that explain my position.”

...Enough.

Look, I’m a charitable guy. Just cause I think you are stupid or ignorant doesn’t mean I think it’s impossible that you may be right. And just because you are disorganized or unprepared doesn’t mean I’m not willing to wait. Get all your ducks in a row, lead them to the pond, feed them whatever ducks normally eat(I hear bread is actually not good for them), and take them back home to tuck them into bed. I’ll wait, I’m patient. I can entertain myself until you get back to me, I won’t walk around claiming I won or that you are a pretender.

But you can’t expect me to learn your position without you. You know why? Because that means I don’t have a goal post to move towards, while you always have a goal post to move. If I find a flaw in your position as represented by a secondary source, you can always say “Oh, I agree with most of what he says, but I disagree on that point. Here’s another source you can look at…”

Sources are just that; sources. As in, a place from which you pull knowledge and/or arguments. The mark of intelligence is being able to elaborate complex subjects in your own words, as opposed to falling back on someone else’s words.

I normally do a bit of research before talking about anything, but I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge on everything I talk about. I haven’t read every book on the matter, nor watched every video, nor listened to every podcast. I don’t spend too much time specifically looking to debunk my current beliefs, believe it or not, unless I get an inkling that something I currently believe doesn’t quite add up. I can’t prove that my own belief has absolutely no room for criticism, but I can address specific issues and change my position when necessary. Similarly, I can’t exhaustively research every counter position to my own position, nor do I ask my ideological opposition to do the same.

If I’m repeating the tired arguments you have heard a million times, just knock em’ down. You should have a canned response if it’s so easy. Am I ignoring nuance? Am I misunderstanding something? Did I overlook a major component of the argument? I need to know these things, because obviously my current research missed something. Everyone has a blind spot in critiquing their own positions, where they are more likely to continue believing what they currently believe. You can’t fault someone for that because everyone has that tendency, including yourself.

To quote Matt Christiansen: “If someone asks you to provide evidence for your claim and your response is look it up! Google! … you’ve lost.” To be perfectly clear, it is not my job to support someone else’s position for them. My job is to support my position and my claims. If you take issue with something I say, please explain why. In fact, you can take issue with something I say and not explain why. Just know that you won’t convince me or many other people with that tactic.

And if you aren’t trying to actually win people over to your side… then why are you voicing your opinion against someone else’s opinion anyways?

Same post on Minds