Clarkson Sibling Debates

Tonight I had a fascinating and fun debate with one of my siblings.

Let me try to set the stage for you.

One of my brothers was in charge of washing the dishes. To protect his hands from the dirty dishwater, he wore some rubber gloves.

Now, these rubber gloves have been used for a couple weeks. In a household where cooking and therefore dishwashing is far too common, they are nearing the end of their lifespan.

Sure enough, a hole appeared and my brother discarded of them.

Fine, right?

Well, not to our sassy, argumentative brother. He insisted our dishwashing brother, Bobby, take the gloves out of the trash, fix them (these are thin rubber gloves), and continue to use them.

This sparked a very long discussion. I don’t think there’s anyone in my family who enjoys backing down from a fight (leaving due to boredom and annoyance are accepted), so the most trivial things can get blown far out of proportion.

I won’t go into details about the argument, there were far too many to keep track of.

However, I had the chance to exercise a great deal of my new knowledge on logical fallacies. I could point out when my brother was making an appeal to popularity, attacking personal traits, and trying to misdirect us (“us” as in myself and Bobby, the dishwashing brother). We ended up going way off track with finding the perfect analogy, debating whether or not scars are imperfections, and how exactly one would fix a rubber glove.

It was a great deal of fun. Though we didn’t necessarily get anywhere, simply because we’re siblings and like to argue, I felt it was a useful exercise for myself.

I encourage you to research logical fallacies in arguments. Is the point they’re making actually valid? Is it a misdirection? Call them out on the fallacies you notice. Force them to provide you with a legitimate argument. At the same time, force yourself to examine your own argument. Are you committing any fallacies?

It’s actually rather fun once you know what you’re looking for.