Can You Debate the Left? ...or, How to Waste a Day.

Help me out. Am I overreacting, maybe like an adult disgusted with kids who refuse to learn or act right, or am I just being realistic? Tell me how you would respond to a comment from someone from the left who challenged my opinion that views and statistics of the left deserve little respect..then, he asks why mine should be accepted.

Here's the background. I have been know to tread into "Liberal Land" at Marc Cooper's site. (Yes, I should know better, but Marc is a nice guy in his own right, and I keep thinking that the next time things will be different.) Over a period of time, I gave up on expecting honest or quality debate from the left. Therefore, I dismissed their views by simply saying that most anything from their side should be rejected, and that they can accept what I say or not. Either way, I don't care. The response to me was that my view was an ad hominem attack and that I shouldn't say something that I wasn't prepared to defend against counterclaims and statistics from the very left that I don't respect. Frankly, the comment to me has some validity but, in a more general sense, I don't think that the time and brain energy required to argue with these people are worth it. Here's the link to the thread and below is my response, quickly prepared but representative of my feelings at the moment of writing it.

(Friend on the Left), let me address your comment with generalities.

(1) First, keep in mind that facts, polls, and statistics that I have provided here in the past are routinely and incorrectly dismissed because they are from the left’s considered conservative sources–as (another commenter), himself, has done in this thread. What can I provide that won’t be dismissed by false conclusions from your side? The left is completely close-minded.

(2) Next, even if people on the left, such as (another commenter), provide statistics, I see flaws in them. Sometimes they’re outdated, they’re incomplete, they’re biasly prepared by a prejudiced source, they’re misinterpreted, etc., etc. It’s rare that statisitics from the left can’t be butchered with facts, logic, and truth. Frankly, right-brained people are not equipped with using analytical ammunition that their brains can’t fire correctly.

I give the left opportunities to convince and impress me. However, I have learned to offer little, if any, respect to analyses from people on the left because they have not earned that respect. In addtion, they have not earned my trust. I continue to consider their views with disapointment, and the left continues to reinforce my negative conclusions about them. Generally, the ideas coming from the left should be received with as much respect as fecal matter flung by monkees at the zoo.

(3) Frankly, any statistics from anyone are suspect. You’ve heard that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Both sides claim similar attacks on these numbers–with mine, of course, having more validity. In my field, I can make numbers say anything that I want them to say, and I’m cautious and skeptical about others doing that–especially, if those people can’t be trusted.

So, what we are left with is the presentation and argument of ideas. Ideas can be debated without claims that the originating source is made-up or incorrect. Ideas can and should be debated on merits and logic.

Unfortunately, it is your side that is most guilty of rejecting facts that oppose its agenda based upon nothing but agenda. It is your side that rejects ideas by saying F yourself. It is your side that is closed minded to opposing views.

So, first, I don’t waste hours anymore to prepare and provide research that the left will reject based simply upon it’s source or conclusions rather than validty. Second, I don’t waste time anymore to explain their flaws that the left would never accept, anyway. Next, I say what I think based upon a lifetime of learning and analysis. Finally, because the left is never, never satisified with anything that contradicts their indoctrination, I don’t worry about whether or not they accept what I say.

I state the truth and my views and it’s simply up to the reader to do what he wants with that. Reject them without serious consideration and you stop learning. Consider them seriously and you might see that opposing views might be right and demand respect. Either way, I don’t worry about it–but, I still keep an open door.

It was a sincerely felt response. As I get older, I just don't want to waste time and energy trying to argue with people who already have their minds made up--even if they still have a lot of learning left to do. Maybe I could have handled this differently, though.

As I'm still willing to learn, what do you think of the response and what would you have said?

Maybe I need to consider Ann Coulter's book: "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," but, if I had read that, I may not have even tried at all. (What a way to start the new year.)