What are the most facepalm worthy debates you've ever gotten into?

This thread is inspired by mess of an argument in that "my music is better than yours" thread.

In that thread, some people are seriously trying to argue that quality in music is objective and that "goodness" and "badness" are objective. I keep having to say over and over again that objectivity only deals with facts such as "Thriller is Michael Jackson's second album" and not judgments of quality. It's like people think there's some sort of different in subjectivity between "I like this band" and "This band is bad" or "This band is low quality". :lol:

On another forum I used to go to, this one lady arguing on the pro-choice side (note that I'm pro choice on abortion) tried to argue that fetus's are only alive once they exit the womb. She came up with all kind of crazy arguments, but that was the craziest IMO and it turned into a huge thread. So basically she claims that until the umbilical chord is cut, the baby is dead. Again, crazy.

What some of the facepalm worthy debates you've been in? You can provide links if you wish.

People that claim that something exists because you can't prove it doesn't, usually in religious threads.

Another crazy argument the woman in my OP made is that she claimed that if mother felt depressed about having a miscarriage, she is undermining the greif of somebody that lost a born child. :roll:

Nice try. I'd get banned for sexual abuse and racism.iskeethunters

Huh?

[QUOTE="iskeethunters"]Nice try. I'd get banned for sexual abuse and racism.GreySeal9

Huh?

Another crazy argument the woman in my OP made is that she claimed that if mother felt depressed about having a miscarriage, she is undermining the greif of somebody that lost a born child. :roll:

GreySeal9

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Are you sure the woman isn't trolling?

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

[QUOTE="iskeethunters"]Nice try. I'd get banned for sexual abuse and racism.iskeethunters

Huh?

Oh, OK. I get what you're saying, For a minute, just because of how you phrased it, I thought you might be in the wrong thread. :P

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

Another crazy argument the woman in my OP made is that she claimed that if mother felt depressed about having a miscarriage, she is undermining the greif of somebody that lost a born child. :roll:

entropyecho

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Are you sure the woman isn't trolling?

I'm fairly certain she wasn't, and if she was, she kept it up for nearly five years.

For me, it is the "deaf people shouldn't be able to drive" argument.

I try to be patient with people because I realize that deafness if foreign to the majority of people, and it is just harmless curiosity, but dang it this argument makes me facepalm every time. And it seems to come up a lot, both online and in real life.

None. It's an unhealthy practice anyway.

None. It's an unhealthy practice anyway.

Victorious_Fize

Yeah, it probably is, but unfortunately, I have an arguing addiction.

[QUOTE="Victorious_Fize"]

None. It's an unhealthy practice anyway.

GreySeal9

Yeah, it probably is, but unfortunately, I have an arguing addiction.

This reminds me of this xkcd comic:

I really do feel this way sometimes.

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

[QUOTE="Victorious_Fize"]

None. It's an unhealthy practice anyway.

CammiTac

Yeah, it probably is, but unfortunately, I have an arguing addiction.

This reminds me of this xkcd comic:

I really do feel this way sometimes.

:lol:

Same here.

i once had a debate about dice lol, took 3 houers or so til we solved it.

I dunno... Just reading religion & politics debates in OT and fanboy arguments in System Wars makes me facepalm enough without having to get involved.

My friend Josh and I were debating about how to pronounce the words woman/women. I told him that woman is pronounced like "woo-min" (like wood minus "d") and "women" is pronounced like "wi-min" (like will minus the ll).

My friend said I was wrong and woman is pronounced "woe-man" and women "woe-men".

I know he's right but I didn't admit that and argued I was right. Anyway, they sound too similiar the way he pronounces it.

The absolute worst was suicide. I literally couldnt convince these 2 guys that suicide was a bad way to tell the world "no body listens to me" I felt like I needed a shower after that thread.

People that claim that something exists because you can't prove it doesn't, usually in religious threads.

tenaka2

[QUOTE="tenaka2"]

People that claim that something exists because you can't prove it doesn't, usually in religious threads.

foxhound_fox

Honestly I usually ignore verbal jabs by others as I often find their positions too ignorant to warrant a response or I foresee a typical Gamespot style devolvement into people going back and forth about the meaning of the words they are using as they appear to have forgotten what they're arguing about and why exact definitions of words aren't particularly relevant -- also I'm lazy and kinda don't care that much about the opinions of the close-minded or those that just want to argue for the sake of it.

That being said I did recently have a run in with a writer at another board that was attempting to write another lazy and factually inaccurate doom and gloom piece about the market trends at the movie theatres and what this might mean for the future. It didn't go on very long as I thought he would look up the stats and realize his error but he kept trying to point out factual inaccuracies in my statements where there weren't any so eventually I just posted the stats and that was that after a few posts.

I once made a thread titled "Some people don't understand what a majority is."

I told people that in order for a majority to exist, the percentage of a specific group in a sample must make up over 50% of the said sample. People kept on confusing "majority" with "plurality".

Example of a MAJORITY using race and ethnicity:

A city with 50,000 people:

CITY A

• Caucasian: 55% (27,500)
• African American: 19% (9,500)
• Hispanic: 14% (7,000)
• Asian: 8% (4,000)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 3% (1,500)
• Native American: 1% (500)

Caucasians make up the racial MAJORITY of this city because they represent over 50% of the population.

Here is an example of a city of 50,000 in which Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of the population:

CITY B

• Caucasian: 48% (24,000)
• African American: 39% (19,500)
• Hispanic: 5% (2,500)
• Asian: 3% (1,500)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 2.8% (1,400)
• Native American: 2.2% (1,100)

Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of this city's population because they are the largest racial group, but they do not form a majority because they don't represent over 50% of the populace. Non-Caucasians represent 52% (a majority) of the population.

People were accusing me of lumping the non-white groups together. This is irrelevant due to the existence of the term "minority-majority".

From the article: "Majority-minority (alternatively, minority-majority) is a term used to describe a U.S. state or other jurisdiction whose racial composition is less than 50% white."

CITY B has a white PLURALITY but not a white MAJORITY.

If my memory hasn't failed me, that thread exceeded 300 relplies. O_O

In high school I took a class about family dynamix. I forgot what it was called but it dealt with things like blended families, parents having a problem with their kids dating outside of their race, childless couples, etc.

Naturally, the subject of abortion came up at some point, and 1 student and I got into a really heated argument. I seriously wanted to head desk at one point. The issue wasn't weather abortion was ever OK. We were debating the very clear laws on abortion in Canada. In essence, I insisted that abortion isn't actually regulated legally, and she insisted that abortion was illegal after the first trimester. It turned into a yes/no argument and it got so heated that the teacher eventually stepped in to end it, and said he wold research it that night. The next day he told the class that I was right :D

When I was younger with my sister we had fights like

Me
"Red is the best color!"

Her
"No BLUE IS BECAUSE ITS MORE SOOTHING ON THE EYES"

Me
"NO YOU ARE BLIND RED IS!1'

then we'd get into a fight and somebody would stab somebody with a pen in the hand and cry.

To be fair, I hate the "I'm right until proven other wise"alexside1

I've read and heard some really DUMB things about why marijuana should be kept illegal. Plain ridiculous things.

I've read and heard some really DUMB things about why marijuana should be kept illegal. Plain ridiculous things.

butteman12

I got in an argument at college because some girl called me sexist for saying that I don't find girls attractive.

Talk about taking rejection poorly

The when have people stopped hearing with their eyes argument

Look at my sig. I was foolish enough to try to argue with this guy. Looking back, it was a huge waste of time.

I once made a thread titled "Some people don't understand what a majority is."

I told people that in order for a majority to exist, the percentage of a specific group in a sample must make up over 50% of the said sample. People kept on confusing "majority" with "plurality".

Example of a MAJORITY using race and ethnicity:

A city with 50,000 people:

CITY A

• Caucasian: 55% (27,500)
• African American: 19% (9,500)
• Hispanic: 14% (7,000)
• Asian: 8% (4,000)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 3% (1,500)
• Native American: 1% (500)

Caucasians make up the racial MAJORITY of this city because they represent over 50% of the population.

Here is an example of a city of 50,000 in which Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of the population:

CITY B

• Caucasian: 48% (24,000)
• African American: 39% (19,500)
• Hispanic: 5% (2,500)
• Asian: 3% (1,500)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 2.8% (1,400)
• Native American: 2.2% (1,100)

Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of this city's population because they are the largest racial group, but they do not form a majority because they don't represent over 50% of the populace. Non-Caucasians represent 52% (a majority) of the population.

People were accusing me of lumping the non-white groups together. This is irrelevant due to the existence of the term "minority-majority".

From the article: "Majority-minority (alternatively, minority-majority) is a term used to describe a U.S. state or other jurisdiction whose racial composition is less than 50% white."

CITY B has a white PLURALITY but not a white MAJORITY.

If my memory hasn't failed me, that thread exceeded 300 relplies. O_O

gamerguru100

I've gotten into to some pretty ridiculous arguements with harry potter and smallville shipers (for those who don't know what shipper means, it's a fan who shows fanatical support for a particular couple). Basically i'd show support for a relationship that wasn't that popular, why the majority of shippers are wrong about the other couple, wait for someone to agree with me and then watch the hilarious arguements between the fans commence.

I've gotten into to some pretty ridiculous arguements with harry potter and smallville shipers (for those who don't know what shipper means, it's a fan who shows fanatical support for a particular couple). Basically i'd show support for a relationship that wasn't that popular, why the majority of shippers are wrong about the other couple, wait for someone to agree with me and then watch the hilarious arguements between the fans commence.

killerboi2

This thread is inspired by mess of an argument in that "my music is better than yours" thread.

In that thread, some people are seriously trying to argue that quality in music is objective and that "goodness" and "badness" are objective. I keep having to say over and over again that objectivity only deals with facts such as "Thriller is Michael Jackson's second album" and not judgments of quality. It's like people think there's some sort of different in subjectivity between "I like this band" and "This band is bad" or "This band is low quality". :lol:

On another forum I used to go to, this one lady arguing on the pro-choice side (note that I'm pro choice on abortion) tried to argue that fetus's are only alive once they exit the womb. She came up with all kind of crazy arguments, but that was the craziest IMO and it turned into a huge thread. So basically she claims that until the umbilical chord is cut, the baby is dead. Again, crazy.

What some of the facepalm worthy debates you've been in? You can provide links if you wish.

GreySeal9

the fetus thing made me lol hard

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

I once made a thread titled "Some people don't understand what a majority is."

I told people that in order for a majority to exist, the percentage of a specific group in a sample must make up over 50% of the said sample. People kept on confusing "majority" with "plurality".

Example of a MAJORITY using race and ethnicity:

A city with 50,000 people:

CITY A

• Caucasian: 55% (27,500)
• African American: 19% (9,500)
• Hispanic: 14% (7,000)
• Asian: 8% (4,000)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 3% (1,500)
• Native American: 1% (500)

Caucasians make up the racial MAJORITY of this city because they represent over 50% of the population.

Here is an example of a city of 50,000 in which Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of the population:

CITY B

• Caucasian: 48% (24,000)
• African American: 39% (19,500)
• Hispanic: 5% (2,500)
• Asian: 3% (1,500)
• Mixed/Multiracial: 2.8% (1,400)
• Native American: 2.2% (1,100)

Caucasians make up a PLURALITY of this city's population because they are the largest racial group, but they do not form a majority because they don't represent over 50% of the populace. Non-Caucasians represent 52% (a majority) of the population.

People were accusing me of lumping the non-white groups together. This is irrelevant due to the existence of the term "minority-majority".

From the article: "Majority-minority (alternatively, minority-majority) is a term used to describe a U.S. state or other jurisdiction whose racial composition is less than 50% white."

CITY B has a white PLURALITY but not a white MAJORITY.

If my memory hasn't failed me, that thread exceeded 300 relplies. O_O

majoras_wrath

Why am I obsessed with race? Maybe it's because I live in a country that is obsessed with race...*cough*USA*cough*...

My friend once tried to convince me that a woman would play in the NBA one day.

IRL, Over wether or not something can be said Ironiclly, and over wether or not Chocolate Cake is better than poptarts

(I obvioulsy argued that Chocolate cake was better, don't worry ;) )

None. It's an unhealthy practice anyway.

Victorious_Fize

It's not really unhealthy. It's good to hear the opposite side of an argument, even if you don't really want to.

On topic, I argued with someone (not on the internet) that he was racist and that racism is wrong, and he responded by saying "I'm not racist if I hate all other races." At first I thought he was joking, but he wasn't...