Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Welcome back to our little mini-series on how to argue & debate and do it well. Today is Part 5 in that series, and this was supposed to be the last in this series, but I got to talking to my husband and my daughter about this series and in that conversation, we came up with some really good points that I wanted to add to this, so it’s now become a 7-part mini-series, lol!
Before I give you Part 5 today, I wanted to share this review that a listener left on for the podcast. This review is from the username Hud Plane and says, “I am a CC (Classical Conversations) student and this has been great for reviewing my fallacies. I listen to one or more about everyday. Keep it up!” That is so awesome! As you all know, we are a Classical Conversations family, too, so it makes my day to hear from another CC student that they’re listening & enjoying it! Classical Conversations is where we learned about the fallacies and they’ve been a sponsor of this show, so that’s super cool.
In yesterday’s episode, I told you about my e-book, very simply and logically-titled 'Logical Fallacies’. This book is a pdf that you can print out and it gives you all the fallacies we cover in the podcast, a definition of each, an example and the question I give you to help recognize that fallacy. Plus you’ll get all the updates for free as I keep it updated while we continue to go through the fallacies. You can get the link for the Logical Fallacies ebook in the show notes.
Today’s show is brought to you by my quiz! I have a short quiz that you can take to test your knowledge of the fallacies. There are 10 memes that I’ve found online and you have to pick which fallacy is being committed in the meme. It’s great practice! Just go to filteritthroughabraincell.com/quiz!
Ok, let’s get to part 5 of this mini-series on how to argue & debate…and do it WELL. Let’s do a quick review of the first 4: 1) you have to study both sides of the issue; 2) you should have evidence, and it should be credible; and 3) it’s ok to argue values, but it doesn’t work to argue feelings. And 4) You can’t argue well if you don’t listen well.
So, let me give you part 5 today and continue fleshing this out.
# 5 is - You have to actually be winsome & confident in your delivery. You have to actually be winsome & confident in your delivery. Your delivery matters. If you don’t deliver well, people can’t & won’t receive your message well. REmember earlier in the season when I talked about Steak in the Face? That’s an example of the way you deliver a message mattering. So let’s break this down into 2 parts:
If you’re not winsome, your message will have the opposite effect you want it to have. Have you ever listened to someone talk or try to teach you something and you could hardly even listen to them b/c of the way they were delivering their message? Maybe they were arrogant & obnoxious and you just really disliked the person. Maybe they were so dry & boring that you had a hard time paying attention. Or maybe they were angry & belittling. When I say winsome, I mean presenting in such a way that you’re not the one creating walls that make it difficult for people to listen to your message. In face, your delivery should create open doors so that others can be invited to take in new ideas, consider new thoughts and maybe, just maybe, challenge their own perspective just a bit. This would be a good exercise, next time you’re watching people speak, ask yourself if they were winsome or not. And then ask why. What made them winsome in their speech, or what made them not winsome. What could have changed the way their talk was received?
Ok, so the second part of delivering your message well is to do it with confidence. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, how could anyone else believe in it? Now, it’s ok to not know everything. But you do want to know enough to be able to speak confidently about it. And when you speak, do so confidently..not arrogantly b/c that’s off-putting…but confidence from you inspires confidence IN you. Some people want to say that delivery shouldn’t matter…that it should just be the content of your message that speaks for itself, and in a perfect world, they’re right. But, we live in a world where only a small segment of people will actually take the time & energy to listen for what the message really is rather than decide whether the message is worth listening to simply based on the way the person delivers it. Ok, y’all that’s it for today, join me in the next episode for Part 6 of how to argue & debate well, and
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
