> Quick tip for identifying people like this: if you are debating with someone and they quickly become emotional, angry, or start using a variety of logical fallacies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies), then you're dealing with someone whose beliefs have no substance.
At this point, it's worth noting that none of Xcelerate's tips are provably true, and his advice is, at best, an anecdotal fallacy. Every single one of his methods for proving that a person's beliefs are baseless are, themselves, baseless.
People become emotional and angry for many reasons, and this is not tightly tied to the underlying rationality of their position. An anti-death-penalty advocate might have a long list of logically sound reasons for their belief (e.g. cost of error, ultimate in government overreach, etc), but they might become emotional because some aspect of state-sponsored executions touches their heart as well. Please do not fall into the fallacy that just because the person you're debating gets emotional that they are necessarily wrong, or that you are necessarily right.
Further, people use logical fallacies all the time. It's very hard to avoid them, unless one has practiced quite thoroughly.
Another common explanation for all of these phenomena is that you're being perceived as a jerk. For instance, if you're the sort of person who says 'I map all of people's beliefs to a single arbitrary dimension and if their beliefs aren't near mine, then they are almost certainly idiots who haven't thought things through and can't accept new evidence', then I'm pretty sure I'm done with you.
At this point, it's worth noting that none of Xcelerate's tips are provably true, and his advice is, at best, an anecdotal fallacy. Every single one of his methods for proving that a person's beliefs are baseless are, themselves, baseless. People become emotional and angry for many reasons, and this is not tightly tied to the underlying rationality of their position. An anti-death-penalty advocate might have a long list of logically sound reasons for their belief (e.g. cost of error, ultimate in government overreach, etc), but they might become emotional because some aspect of state-sponsored executions touches their heart as well. Please do not fall into the fallacy that just because the person you're debating gets emotional that they are necessarily wrong, or that you are necessarily right.
Further, people use logical fallacies all the time. It's very hard to avoid them, unless one has practiced quite thoroughly.
Another common explanation for all of these phenomena is that you're being perceived as a jerk. For instance, if you're the sort of person who says 'I map all of people's beliefs to a single arbitrary dimension and if their beliefs aren't near mine, then they are almost certainly idiots who haven't thought things through and can't accept new evidence', then I'm pretty sure I'm done with you.