How do you react when someone starts a political discussion/argument on a subject they obviously don't understand?

Maybe they are asking a question so they can become educated. Geesh.

First, I try not to engage in such complicated and often emotionally charged topics in any form of writing, and second, if I don’t know enought about the topic, I don’t engage.

I just don’t participate in political discussions or arguments. It just seems like arguing for arguing sake. People are going to believe what they want .. like arguing religion. I just let them have their beliefs and I keep mine to myself.

If they are open to discussion, I try to bring up points that I disagree with. If they just want to rant, then I refuse to participate in the conversation. It’s not worth the irritation.

Whether they understand the subjects from an educational standpoint or a common sense standpoint is irrelevant. Even if they don’t fully understand these issues, I never dismiss their understanding that these issue can and do impact their lives.

By kicking them in the doo-dads ;)

I am trying to change the way I deal with these issues. When I first came to Fluther this sort of idiocy would fill me with anger and contempt, and I felt free to express it. I am still annoyed with what Goethe once called “aggressive stupidity”, but I am trying to refrain from attempting to demolish the OP, and just drift on to a less stupid question. I am not always successful.

Even though my husband agrees with me, he sometimes, “fills in the gaps” when he doesn’t understand. I have learned to just roll my eyes and laugh.

I put out a feeler to see if they are open to new ideas. If they aren’t:

Smile and nod.
Smile and nod.
run

My mother is this person. Usually prefacing all ignorant statements with, “I heard on the news…” or “This girl at work said…”. She would then continue into some outragous claim about “middle easterners” or “the blacks” or “people on welfare”. The running theme being how one group or another was out to screw the rest of us hard-working Americans.

It was all 98% opinion and 2% factoids she heard from somewhere. Worst of all, she was adament that this was true and would become defensive and argumentative if challenged (going so far as to storm out of the room).

Reason #436 why I no longer speak with her.

I ignore it completely because it’s 99.99% likely that I don’t understand it either.

Even though some think they know, others just ask to get educated. That’s what I do usually.

It really depends on their attitude.

Some people are looking to see if there is more to a particular issue than they previously thought and are seeking guidance to make a more informed opinion. These people I can deal with pretty well.

Some people are happily ignorant, don’t listen, and are really unconcerned with any facts aside from those that bolster their preconceived notions, and are usually not concerned about the veracity of the “facts” that they do use; since those scraps of info match up with their delusions then they must be true! Those people I usually get nasty with or just dismiss them entirely.

I don’t mind (and often actually welcome) a discussion with those of opposing viewpoints so long as they at least listen. I care less about being agreed with than with alleviating my fear that I am surrounded by idiots.

I am fine with someone starting a discussion about anything if they are open to information. Even if they start off with an ignorant or misinformed position, but are interested in the topic that is worthwhile to me. If they dig their heels in that whatever bullshit they believe is correct when it is obviously not by all objective measures, that is when it becomes ridiculous, but I never fault someone for asking question or having interest.

I don’t usually get into conversations like that, but my best defense is to keep saying “Well, what do you think about that?” and just listen. My Father-In-Law starts conversations like that because he wants to talk about his ideas and his views, and he doesn’t really care what other people have to say.

@gemiwing Smile and nod, I lurve it

I bring up some point that’s not entirely obscure, but that they’re pretty much guaranteed not to know about, lecture about that for a bit, and then change the subject if its in person. Generally works. Online, I just correct them… and maybe call them stupid.

First of all, I disagree that common sense is no substitute for political education. In fact, I believe that political education leads to poor judgements. Graduates in “poli-sci” got us into the stupid fixes we have now. Throughout my life, I have seen the State Department make mistakes that people with normal common sense would never make. I have seen our political leaders mislead into foolish wars in Vietnam and Iraq that the normal guy in the bowling alley would avoid.

Political Science majors are only as good as their teachers and very few really seem to understand people of different cultures and values. On top of that, they are elitists that fail to take good advice when it is available. I think that they are just people that want to feel important, make a lot of money but don’t really want to work.

I have been in many political discussions, with a wide range of people. The most sensible answers came from historians because they look at the cause of the conflicts, professionals seem to look at ways to influence people for the professional’s benefit. My philosophy is don’t trust social or political scientists, they are only working for the self-interest of their personal political philosophies.

I avoid the hell out of it. Had to endure one blogging site for a class where opposing forces sat at their terminals spewing abuse at each other for hours on end. There was a lot of copy-pasting articles and “This is the TRUUUUTH”, but not a whole lot of understanding the issue/s. I’m just a polyp here on Fluther, and so far it seems like political discourse is on the DL here. I really hope it remains this way!

@peridot Most people here know and understand what they are talking about.

I happened to be sitting at the table of our county Tea Party leader during a trade supper last night. I really had to fight the urge to make negative comments about the party. One of the other guys there mentioned that he voted for Bush, both times, and for McCain and Palin the last presidential election. Frankly I was amazed, he was the first person that I met that admitted to doing such a thing.

When I asked why, he couldn’t explain anything except that he hates Obama for some unknown reason. His horrendous admissions popped the Tea Party guy right out of my mind.

Maybe the difference is interpretation rather than knowledge.

@YARNLADY I notice that the most vehement right wing seem to have a canned set of responses. These responses actually tell them how to respond. It is like someone said, leave he thinking to the experts and the thinking is more orientated toward securing political power rather than helping the country. It is like “give us power, we’ll come up with ideas later?” I am not comfortable with others doing my thinking for me.

@Ron_C Agreed. I have not run into many Right-wingers that can thing for themselves. In fact, most of the Conservatives I know that are even capable of holding a more in-depth discussion about anything political or financial than the Eliza computer program are here on Fluther. For instance, I had a Conservative co-worker who not only did not but stubbornly refused to believe that there was a difference between corporate tax and personal income tax; he thought that every penny that the incorporated company we worked for counted as personal income for the owner!
To be fair, there are some hard-core Liberals who think that The Daily Show is journalism as opposed to journalism-related comedy more akin to editorial comments. (Granted, I use those sources myself, but only as an alternative viewpoint or discussion starter as opposed to stone-cold fact.) By and large, I have observed that Conservatives are far more likely to shut down their brain and not even question their talking heads. Most Liberals and Moderates/Centrists take in information and actually think about it before forming an opinion. Sometimes they get bad data, but at least they use their brains.
Many Conservatives blindly worship Reagan and overlook some facts about his presidency. They also tend to give credit to those who don’t deserve it , and think that Bush-43 was the best thing to happen to the economy and that he could do no wrong, but the truth is that he was capable of making mistakes

I think it should tell you something that comedians, a group that makes a living off of pointing out stupidity and absurdity, find more material by looking at the Right’s policies, actions, and ideology than they do from the Left or Center.

Back to the original question though, as you can see, I am not above the typical response to a political debate; digging in my heels and trying to belittle those I don’t agree with. Part of that is because it is felt that those on the other side cannot be reasoned with, and to an extent that is true. The two sides are so far apart that a middle ground is a long commute for either of them; long enough to often not be worth the bother. Sadly, only one side seems to know history and look at it without getting totally revisionist to the point of delusion. (They still revise/ignore some stuff, but not nearly as much.)

@jerv @Ron_C I certainly agree some Republicans can’t or don’t think. The worst in my mind is Michelle Bachmann. Gawd, I have had such wonderful experiences meeting people from Minnesota, how the hell can she be from that state? But, I digress. I think many Republicans are smart, do think, but the Republicans have figured out that being on message, and using canned responses is an effective advertising tool. The thing for me is the people following, or electing these leaders, parrot the same messages, and they are not running for office, they are, some of them are, simply blindly following the leader. It happens on the left of course also, but not to the same extreme I think. But, I am a little biased.

@JLeslie The problem is that many Conservatives are not conservative enough to be in the Republican party we now have. Colin Powell and John McCain are too liberal!
The rabid extremists on the Right make all Republicans and conservative-independents look bad. If I were more paranoid, I would think that Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and the like were a Liberal conspiracy to discredit the GOP.

@jerv Love it.

@jerv “I would think that Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and the like were a Liberal conspiracy to discredit the GOP” Never though about it that way, don’t forget Beck and Malkin.

@Ron_C That is why I put, ”... and the like..”; there are quite a few and I didn’t feel like listing them all, so I put that in there to cover the rest.

@jerv Good point, I think I’ll quote you in my next discussion with a tea party member

It can be best to just walk away from such morons. They aren’t likely to accept correction of their misinformed belie, and it isn’t pleasant to hear them raving.