In your opinion, when does a discussion become an argument?
Asked by
jca2 (
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February 9th, 2024
I was on a 3 way text today with two people who are both former coworkers and friends of mine. The discussion was about politics, and one of the friends was just putting out some opinions, and the text discussion between me and the third person was a lot of back and forth, each of us giving our opinions and disagreeing with the other. The discussion stopped for a while, as I was having lunch with some people and my friend on the text was at work. In the evening, she texted again and I responded, and then I decided I was going to end it. I told her I am going to stop arguing now and will no longer respond, and her response was that she didn’t consider it an argument, she considered it a discussion.
To me, it was an argument but I may be incorrect. It felt like an argument to me. When does a discussion become an argument, in your opinion?
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11 Answers
A discussion is an exchange of ideas. “Here is what I think, what do you think? Oh, that is so interesting”
An argument is at least one side trying to convince the other side of their stance, or that they are wrong.
The moment politics comes into play. :-D
^Oh yeah. Politics, and religion.
When one side thinks the solution is killing the other person ! (Trump politics).
There is, in my mind, a third option.
Debate.
“Argument,” has a negative implication.
It may help to learn about the trait of agreeableness. Some people are bent toward harmonizing with others (high agreeableness) and others see it as normal and acceptable that everyone is out to defend their own interests (low agreeableness).
I’m high agreeableness. When I talk politics with someone by messaging, my position tends to be “I believe you, but I don’t see or understand it.” (Of course, I burned up all my political fervor years ago on this site.)
The discussion/argument/debate we were having was me saying Biden is too old to run again and probably won’t last five more years, and her saying Biden is wonderful, all is well with the economy, etc., and he’s the head of the party and nobody can stop him. Ironically, today the NY Times (a decidedly liberal paper) has four articles concerning Biden’s age, recent gaffes and probably memory loss and that he should opt not to run again. I know my friend reads the Times but I’m not saying a word.
today the NY Times (a decidedly liberal paper)
I will respectfully enter into discussion to dispute that statement. The NY Times gives undue respect to right-wing extremists and too little attention to genuine progressives.
A big example is the 2003 Iraq invasion. The NY Times’ promoted Judith Miller’s transcriptions of the false Republican narrative of Iraqi nuclear, biological, and chemical weapon stockpiles.
The opinon/editorial (OpEd) pages of the NY Times are clogged with conservatives like Thomas Friedman and David Brooks, and bereft of progressive opinions.
@Strauss haha! Someone pm’d me and alluded to something similar!
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