How far could Cam Fall?

[Proudiddy]

I insulted your argument, not you (and even pulled that back because I thought it sounded too harsh).

There are people on here who I believe are perfectly intelligent, but if they make a stupid statement I'll generally say it's a dumb statement and explain why I think so. For example, Mav's as smart a guy as anyone on here, but if he said something like "they should draft whoever sells the most tickets" I'd tell him that was a pretty silly idea.

Saying, "that's wrong", "you're wrong", "that's ignorant", "that sounds dumb", "that's a stupid thing to say", "you're being silly", "you don't know what you're talking about", "that doesn't show much football knowledge"", "you're making yourself look bad" or anything like that is a comment on the debate itself or the ideas expressed therein.

However, stating "you're full of hate/fear/racism/racial bias", "you just have ulterior motives", "your thinking is racist or influenced by racist attitudes" or something like "you're stupid" or anything of that sort is a personal attack on someone's character. You'll not hear me say something like that unless someone has a long history of posting really stupid things, and only a very few on here have been consistently dumb enough to fall into that category.

You want to really win a debate? Defeat the ideas. Attacking the person is the lazy way to go. We all are guilty of it sometimes, but for some it's their default tactic.

Stuff like this is a big reason why the arguments have descended into the toilet this year.

Mr. Scot, with all due respect, and without looking back the original thread all of our problems branched off from, I remember feeling the insults were directed at me, as in "anyone that thinks this is an idiot." That's not the argument, that was the person. I'm not saying that's what it was word for word, but if you attacked my argument, I wouldn't have felt insulted and we could've kept it civil in that thread because that led me to say things that I usually wouldn't.

And in our original debates, my original aim was to counter each of the ideas, and I felt I did a good job of that until I felt I was insulted. And regardless, even if you don't directly call someone an idiot a logical assumption could be made that if you think someone's argument is ignorant, so are they. I take great pride in my intelligence and ability to debate with others, although I have fell in the same trap you spoke of, and I have done it often... Let's be honest, sometimes the internet just isn't as fun without making personal insults towards people you don't know :lol:... But, seriously, as I've said, I'm past all that now and I'm ready for the draft to get here so we can deal with something tangible to debate instead of opinions and hypotheticals.

I don't have a problem with you anymore or anyone else, I generally don't hold grudges, but the Cam topics have been a lot harder to just "let go" because so many of the conversations have derailed into things that have nothing to do with football and people take it personally.