Argument 2 - Offence as defence

By Mae Wright

In Part 1, I explored my perplexing fear reaction about arguing with someone on social media.

Well, I was not really arguing, I was just trying to engage. I asked people questions about their ideas. I was trying to step out of my own bubble.

But I failed completely. Several times. I wasn't really expecting a reasoned argument, but I was expecting some sort of answers to simple questions about their views. However, asking questions was seen as attack; my questions were met with outrage and offence.

I'm sure you've seen it too.

Fun? For some...

What gets called an 'argument' these days is actually a fight to hold 'territory', to defend firmly-held opinions, and to damage the other person as much as possible. No-one ever, ever, ever modifies their idea or changes their mind. People fling words at each other like a food fight. They hurl soggy information (simplistic memes), rotten comments (outrage and offence) and stale explanations ('that's what my grandparents did'). Simply pour over some vinaigrette of arrogance: 'Well, you have no idea', and a garnish of insults: 'Only an idiot could think that' and you have a mess no one wants to clean up.

When and why did my much-loved calm and respectful argument about differing ideas deteriorate into a word fight to defend territory?

We're making changes

By Fred Shivvin

At the end of last year, we had a good long hard look at the writing we'd done so far to see if we had a 'going thing' and to decide what we keep doing and what we might change.

The good news is that the blog is a 'going thing'. We want to expand the focus a little, but it will still be all about words.

In other news, we want to change the blog design, the post format, and the frequency of posts.

After a year of writing and thinking, we were able to clarify what motivates us, our aims and where we want to go. We had grappled a bit with the focus, and also our tendency to write such hilariously long posts. We had feedback from a few readers that was really helpful.

We've put our aims and motivations into our new blog manifesto!

As a result of what we have decided, we want to change the name of the blog as well. 'Angst' about adjectives might have been the organiser when we were getting the blog going, but our writing is more often prompted by curiosity, confusion, amusement or irritation. And we have found ourselves writing beyond adjectives for some time now.

So, the best way to update everything and create a new name is to set up a new blog, migrate all the posts and you - our readers - as well, and go from there. This will take time, so for the next few months (hopefully not too long), we will have fewer new posts while we build the new site and review and revise all the previous writing.

We have lots of new ideas as well; and we are feeling excited about the clarify that a year of writing has allowed.

We think you will really like the new blog. Stay tuned for more news!

What is this blog about?

By Fred Shivvin

This blog is about humans and how they use words. 

It looks at the way we use words to make sense of the world, to sort out our ideas, to share our thoughts with others, as well as whether the words we use make this easier or harder, clearer or messier.

The blog delves beneath everyday words to their origins, changes, value-loading, use, misuse and sometimes abuse. This often starts with linguistics, but also takes in psychology, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy - each of which can tell us something about ourselves.

Words can reveal our hang-ups, biases, fears, humour, aspirations, needs, reasoning, way of organising information about the world, social structures, ideas, values, and our interpersonal connections. 

The blog explores everyday words to see how well they serve us, what the use of those words tells us about ourselves and our society, and whether some words are loaded with problematic concepts or interpretations. 

Each post aims to find a small nugget of clarity amongst our word-filled days.

One word at a time. 

TATKOP 119

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who can live with ambiguity and those who avoid reality.

Check out all the posts in the TATKOP series by Fred Shivvin here. 

Argument 1 - Asking as attack

Mae Wright

I love a good argument. I don't mean an angry disagreement. I mean the curious and respectful exploration of opposing ideas to find the source of difference, see if there is some 'middle ground', and something new to learn.

But genuine arguments so rarely happen these days.

The so-called 'argument' these days is more like a vehement battle of opposing ideas. A battle to the death with tongues as weapons: 'I believe 'this' and I'm right.' 'Well no, you're wrong; I believe 'that'.' 'No way, how could you think 'that'? You are so brainwashed and stupid.' 

The aim of the contemporary 'argument' seems to be to beat your opponent's idea, and really, to conquer your opponent personally.

Nowhere is this more evident than on social media - platforms geared to witty and pithy comments which reward those who generate outrage (going viral). Social media platforms were born of a part of youth culture where verbal one-upmanship and scathing put-downs were a 'performance art' that replaced genuine conversation. Fun for some. Entertaining for some topics. But now, serious topics of discussion on social media get the same treatment.

Arguing on social media is so well known to be pointless, it has generated its own memes. A new golden rule for our times is never argue with someone online.

Recently, I broke that golden rule.

Long story short: it did not go well.

Long story, not short at all: the contemporary 'argument' remains pretty woeful. World harmony and understanding was not advanced. No agreement was reached. But I learnt a lot. Mainly about myself. And I learnt to pay attention to some red flags that can lurk in an argument.

In fact, I would go so far as to recommend it to you!

Mediocre tenniser, keen researcher

By Fred Shivvin

It's summer. Holidays at the beach: hassled driving, then relaxed dining, drinking, reading, sleeping, swimming, watching the cricket and playing it on the beach. (Or, for some, fighting bush fires).

The holiday game of beach cricket

When you do any of these you become: a (hassled) driver, diner, drinker, reader, sleeper, swimmer, watcher (or viewer), player and cricketer. ''I'll be the bowler first. Can you go fielder Fred?" (Or, for some, a fire-fighter).

I'm also watching and playing that other summer sport - tennis. And it occurs to me: why is there no word tenniser?

Rules in English almost always have exceptions. But the word tenniser doesn't break any English rules or conventions, so why don't we use it?

Over my summer holiday, I went to find out why.

TATKOP 118

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who relish others' knowledge and those who relish others' ignorance.

See all the posts in the TATKOP series by Fred Shivvin here.