Why do you argue? Based on the definition of the word "argue", we can assume people argue because they want to convince or persuade someone to accept a proposition. This seems obvious and you would think this is the objective behind everyone who gets into a debate; they want to influence the minds of others.
However, have you seen of the way many people behave in debates on here (and other forums of course)? In I would estimate to be 90% of the cases, there's a strong, implicit animosity at the heart of every debate. It's as if people find out the level of hostility or animosity necessary to get banned, bump it down a notch, and then use that level to dictate their behavior. I am not sure if people are aware of this behavior or not, but I notice it all the time.
It's like when two people start arguing they immediately despise each other and start attacking each other. Oftentimes it's not explicit, either because they want to avoid being moderated, or they aren't aware of it themselves. But the feeling is definitely there and it is strong. You can constantly find people implying others are of lower intelligence or aren't worth being taken seriously (with phrases like "learn to read" or "LOL, educate yourself", and of course much more offensive versions of these). Obviously these phrases aren't against the rules (and they shouldn't be), but they do convey a general sense of arrogance and condescension. My question is: why would you want to create such hostile environments if you want to be persuasive? I can understand if someone else is already being an asshat, but if you're being unnecessarily unpleasant or antagonistic as soon as the debate starts - which many people are - then you clearly have no intentions of being persuasive.
To these people, why are you wasting your time trying to debate with others if you clearly aren't trying to persuade people to change their mind? If you want to be convincing, then you're going to have to make yourself seem respectable to the person you're talking to. People will tend not to agree with someone who thinks s/he is superior (even if they do know a lot more about the subject in question). Unfortunately, too few people even put forth any effort to at least appear respectable. This tells me they don't care if other people believe them or not. If that's the case, then why are you debating? Are you just trying to vent off your frustrations from the real world? Do you just enjoy conflict? Do you enter a thread with good intentions, but lose your temper afterwards? What is your objective?
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Delano7 
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