In one of those vlogs I tend to do these days someone mentioned that I always seem to careful when I'm voicing my opinion. Meaning that I beat around the bush too much, I don't get to the meat of the issue fast enough. There is some truth to that, I must admit. But, I do so because life has taught me that if I don't I lose the line of communication anyways.

Couching the Caveats

This is not entirely my expression mind you, but I find it very fitting to describe my tactic, my little technique. Simply because it's an attempt to be considerate while at the same time being effective when I am possibly opposing someone's opinion.

Let's say for the sake of making a point that I was having a debate with someone who believed the earth was flat. Yes, there is a considerable amount of people on earth that subscribe to this idea, still today. Let me ask you, What is more effective? To insult, to ridicule, or to ask to see the edge, the place where the world ends?

Granted that example might be a little too easy, but it drives my point home without insulting, and that is the key element here, the ones who think that I mistakenly believe the world to be round. Now, does this mean I will effectively convince everyone of my stance? Of course not, but there will those times were the other person will concede to some of my points, and others when they actually agree.

Debates are fun but useless some say

My good friend @clayboyn says this quite often. Maybe because we have a friend in common who absolutely loves debating. He thrives in the tumultuous waters of disagreement. Why? That is a question our friend should answer, not me, but this is an observable phenomena.

I do have to ask myself what would be the purpose on engaging in debate with someone, if that person is determined to do so only for an ego boost. Meaning that I can recognize I will be the excuse for that person performing some sort of self affirmation. The old "Im right, because you are wrong" banality.

Now of course, this does not mean I don't want to discuss an issue, or voice my opinion just because I fear disagreement, no. This just means that I must be aware for my own sanity, really, if I'm about to partake on an action of futility.

Caveats are Weapons

And that is kind of my point with this strange post. They seem to allow some sort of mental inception, a lowering of someone's guard, to at least consider a counter point, if only for a minute or two. I'm not entirely sure if this is the case for the majority of people, but at least anecdotally this has shown to be mostly true for me.

Just think about this, you just read a whole post about couches, with a picture of a couch. Yet, there was nothing about furniture here, not even the mention of a store. So what just happened? Did you just get mentally incepted?

I guess, we will never know...