Josh H's Response to "How to Argue Effectively"

This article left me amused and confused. In Dave Barry’s article, “How to argue effectively,” he sarcastically explains 5 different ways for a person to win an argument. When I started reading this article I couldn’t help but laugh at his theories and suggestions because of his sarcasm. I enjoyed reading this because it really has nothing to do with actually winning the argument or arguing effectively, but instead on how to get people to think you are smart. He suggests that in order to win an argument you should drink liquor, make things up, use meaningless words and phrases, use snappy and irrelevant comebacks, and compare your opponent to Adolf Hitler. At first, I was quite confused at my response because the article does not realistically show what it claims to, about, “How to argue effectively.” Instead of learning from the article, I ended up laughing at the material and its cynical tone.

After pondering the article, I realized it represents the worldly point of view of arguing because he only shows how to impress the opponent and fool them about how much you actually know. He first suggests drinking liquor because it urges you to be more outgoing and argue about something that you would not know like, the economy in Peru. He says, “If you drink several large martinis, you’ll discover you have strong views about the Peruvian economy. You’d be a wealth of information.” (Barry) Although he makes a point about getting into conversation, I do not believe that drinking liquor is an “effective” way of arguing. He goes on to advise people to lie and use exact prices and dates whenever trying to prove a point and if challenged, respond with weighty sounding words or snappy comebacks. To me, it seems that Barry does not really care about effectively arguing but instead throwing the opponent onto its back in shock of his knowledge and poise. If I were his opponent, I would think he was a tool for trying to be somebody he isn’t and an idiot for thinking that it works.

All together I find myself being a hypocrite about the whole thing because I am probably one of the easiest people to argue with because half of the time I don’t know what to say, and have no guts to say what really comes to mind. I’m one of those guys who cannot put their thoughts into words even if their life depended on it. You see, every single time I get in the situation, I can never think of a comeback but instead, I think of the BEST, DIRTIEST, MOST CRUEL comebacks a few hours/days later. I give credit to Barry for his ideas about engaging in conversation and staying composed during the argument but find his other points pretty radical. My favorite part about the article was when he recommends, “When your opponent is obviously right and you are spectacularly wrong… subtly say: ‘You certainly do remind me of Adolf Hitler’” How can they come back from that? All I know is next time I can’t think of anything to say, I’m going to use the Hitler line.