Debate Me

⊕Genuinely can’t remember if I made this or someone else did.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re not querying for supporting evidence.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re seeking confirmation of the stereotype they associate with you.

When someone says, “debate me,” they do so subconsciously knowing nothing you could offer threatens their beliefs.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re making a smart bet.

• If you say, “no,” they win.
• If you say, “yes,”
  • They can agree to some disconnected fact, demonstrating their “objectivity,” and concluding their “logical superiority,” or;
  • They can naively falsify some disconnected fact, demonstrating their “superior knowledge.”

Heads, they win; Tails you lose:

• Your attention.
• Your time.
• Your energy.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re trying to attenuate your signal by injecting noise.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re inducing a misallocation of your resources.

When someone says, “debate me,” they stochastically silence what you could have said absent their intrusion.

When someone says, “debate me,” they’re executing an exploit.

Knowledge doesn’t come from fact foraging. It exists in the relationships between them. Study other people’s beliefs; learn about experiences dissimilar from your own; explore the remarkable variability to the human experience; oppose the ideas cause harm or prescribe indifference; and, if you can, express what you believe because other people may need to hear it — to see that they are not alone.

And remember…

…when someone says, “debate me,” you don’t have to do so.

Originally published on medium