I keep losing debates (ok, sometimes they're screaming matches) to liberals. And having drawn from my experience with losing arguments of personal rather than political nature I now have a good reason as to why.

I've noticed that arguments of personal conflicts that I lose invariably have commonalities with the arguments that I lose politically. And by "lose", I don't mean that I am "wrong" merely that my debating skills are not adequate to the task and I am left with the appearance that I have lost. Oh to be the master of the snappy comeback, or to have a memory for obscure statistics.

But alas I am not. So for those of you that haven't encountered this verbal terrorist tactics, or have and have yet to realize you've been the victim of them, I enumerate them:


#1. My opponet draws me into an argument they can win, leaving the original topic unsettled but with the appearance that I've lost. This one is sneaky, and I'm an easy mark for it. It's so easy to be talking one hot issue and then have my opponet make a claim s/he knows I'll dispute just to change the topic of the debate. Eventually either we'll rest on topic that I outright lose, or we're brought to a "draw" where the matter is quite open to opinion (meaning that there is no "right" or "wrong" answer, so, of course, I've lost).

#2. My rival states a "fact" that is, in fact, an "opinion", but believes that by stating it as a fact it becomes so. This is most irritating when the "fact" in question is blantantly false and could be proven so if my rival didn't invoke:

#3.  My facts are labeled opinions, or worse yet, outright lies. In most respects this is the exact reversal of #2. My facts are provable if only my opponet wouldn't declare the source a lie. This is even more irritating than #2.

#4. The single cause assertion. This one's a pain (aren't they all?). This tactic has the aggressor demand I reveal the single cause of a result, or alternatively, offers only a single cause to a result, when in reality there are many causes that combine to reach the result. So was it the fast food or the lack of exercise that made him fat?

#5. Probably the most heinous of all, my opposition states an outright lie- not their opinion that just happens to be wrong mind you- but an outright lie that they are perfectly aware is a lie and they use it as gospel, or worse, they repeat it enough times that other people begin to believe it is true. (Bush Lied!, Gore Won!, Global Warming is caused by YOUR breathing, for example)

I mention this because I find that I am not alone as a victim of liberal debate cheating. The Republicans, and conservatives in general, also suffer from these practices. At least I'm in good company.