Ever get into a fight with a family member because they have a different view on a political or social topic with you? Ever feel like they try to invalidate your point by saying something like "oh you don't know what I'm talking about", "oh you are getting all of your information from bad sources" or my personal favorite, "we're just going to have to agree to disagree on that"? There are many ways in which you can get your point across to family and friends which will allow for them to have the best understanding about where you lie in your perspective. Here are a few tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way to help get my point across to even the narrowest of minds.
- Don't start yelling or raising your voice. Once this happens it seems to automatically shut off your credibility in the eyes of the person who you are conversing with. Instead try keeping your voice calm and low, if you are quiet they will have to pay closer attention to your words and not be as distracted by what they want to say next.
- Make sure to fact check your fact check. Winning an argument has no meaning if the data you're using is from an unreliable source or if it is skewed in a certain way. When you find a piece you want to use, make sure to check it across many different websites or articles you can find. Then if the person asks about where you got your information from you can ask them which site they want because you are confident in it.
- This one may be hard for some, but sympathize with your opposition in the argument. When debating politically, don't be afraid to say that both sides are bad or point out your own weaknesses. If you do that first and address it, you can then move into your more relevant point and it will be harder for them to rebuttal with "well yours if worse" or something along those lines.
- Know more than them. Harder in practice I'm sure but imagine this, you're debating on the issue of say the protests happening right now about police brutality. If you can name a specific detail or retell the whole story about an incident involving that, you might have an edge over the person you are debating if they know nothing about that certain incidence.
- Educate them, and be willing to be educated. The sharing of information is something that is key right now, because like I said in the last point they might have specific knowledge about an event that you might not and vice versa. It's not shameful to admit that you were wrong in certain cases and that you didn't have all the information, you have to be willing to say, "okay I see the information you are giving me and I will use it to make better informed decisions in the future."
Right now is probably the best time to have these tough talks that need to happen in America right now. There is so much misinformation going around that it's hard to know fact from fiction and how to apply that. Hopefully with having these talks with the people around you, we can become a better informed society and implement change where we see it is needed.
