Congrats on moving to hughmcguire.net

boris: yeah right. he landed on his back just like always.

You wrote: “He won”.

You learned something about yourself, understood that it would be better for you not to spend too much of your valuable time trying to ‘win’ an argument with people who are jerks, and significantly improved your own worldview.

You won, Hugh. Hands down.

That people don’t see it on the Wikipedia discussion entry has no bearing at all.

Gnothi Seauton.

You won.

1. you are debating something substantive, and there are valid reasons to discuss one side or the other.

2. you have already exhausted substantive debate, and now the argument continues in cricles; or the interlocutor has been totally unreasonable from the start.

My advice if for when you have moved from 1 to 2. Unless you are unreasonable yourself, you will noticed when the discussion goes from 1 to 2.

And this advice is directed to people who are reasonable to start with.

Perhaps, if the need to write a long-winded email explaining your argument exists, it’s not so bad to write it all out if it helps to organize your thoughts.. I guess it depends on the complexity of the argument or how together your thoughts have been from the start, but then save it to drafts! Wait a couple days.. read it again, and I find it becomes quite clear it’s not worth sending. But sometimes it may have been worth writing ?

I think sometimes we are proving / confirming something to ourselves when we feel that need to over explain. More beneficial to do as you say, send the “brief response” and end it. Then delete that long winded version should it exist, reflect, learn.. move on. :)

I try to recognize when an argument is reason-based, and the person I’m arguing with is interested in arriving at the correct answer or some sort of solution, vs. emotion-based, when the interlocutor is interested in being right. It’s of course a spectrum, but often, when you keep this dichotomy in mind, you will see when an argument has crossed the line of irrational no return, and that’s when it’s time to end it, in the way that you have suggested.