Online arguments

I am not going to lie, reading online arguments gets my blood boiling, and stresses me out. This assignment was not ideal for me. But that is life, right? We all have to do things that make us uncomfortable.

Anyway, I found an argument on the subreddit r/DebatePolitics. I figured this would be an easy topic to find an argument in the comments section. 

Click here if you want to read the answers to the questions a Redditor asked - "[Serious] If he runs in '24 should I vote for Trump? What are some valid reasons I can tell left-leaning friends?"

I chose this online argument for this assignment because I thought it was a good example of how arguers online tend to talk in circles, with emotion, and without factual knowledge. 

In the following images, the user toddi73 attempts to give some reasons why this Original Poster (OP) should vote for Trump in the 2024 election. Three negative examples with this argument are (1) their initial comment to the OP is full of opinions and not facts, (2) their attempts at providing "facts" fall flat because they do not back up any of their claims, and (3) when someone asks them to back up their sources they say "the news, eyewitness accounts, videos. What kind of question is that? Lol." But then when someone provides that person with their own facts, toddi73 asks them to back up their claims! And it just goes in circles for several comments.

I do not expect anyone to read through all this but I thought I would make the example more easily accessible. 

Five rules I think should be utilized to argue online correctly:

1. If you make a claim you must provide evidence and resources.

2. Do not resort to name-calling or belittling. 

3. You need to provide reasons why your claim should be believed.

4. Try to understand the other person's beliefs or point of view. 

5. You can not use personal opinions to back up your claims, you can use personal opinions to provide anecdotal reasons as to why you feel the other side should believe you.

It is rather unfortunate that people spend so much time and energy being keyboard warriors. But that is the time we live in! If only people utilized this type of energy in more meaningful efforts...