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A guy at my town hall meeting in Dayton showed me how to argue without calling anyone a name, and it worked
Last month I went to a packed town hall in Dayton about a school budget vote, and I was ready to go off on a guy who kept cutting people off. An older man next to me leaned over and said, try asking him a question about his own point instead of making yours. I did it, asked him what number he thought was fair, and he actually calmed down and talked for 2 minutes without yelling. We still disagreed at the end, but nobody got called names and a few people nodded at both of us. Has anyone else tried the question trick in a heated argument and had it go that way?
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mark67610d ago
So this older guy basically taught you to flip the script and make the other person actually think instead of just react, which is way harder than it sounds when your blood is up. My question is what happened the next time you tried it, because I've noticed the trick works great on people who just want to be heard but falls apart on the ones who are only there to perform for a crowd. Did that guy in Dayton keep it up after the meeting ended or did he go right back to the same act once he had an audience again? And honestly, when you asked him what number was fair, was he actually willing to give a real answer or did he dodge it? Trying to figure out if this works because it taps into something real or if it just buys you a couple quiet minutes.
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