Why It Matters

By

James Stafford

·

Choose and Defend: Conversation or Argument?

I am one non-confrontational bunny rabbit, but not everyone is. Don’t misunderstand, I’ll talk your ear off about any topic that you care to discuss.  Pick something I’m passionate about, and I’ll go Bubba Gump on you. But I don’t like to argue. Maybe I was born this way, or maybe my life experience has…

cagneyI am one non-confrontational bunny rabbit, but not everyone is.

Don’t misunderstand, I’ll talk your ear off about any topic that you care to discuss.  Pick something I’m passionate about, and I’ll go Bubba Gump on you.

But I don’t like to argue. Maybe I was born this way, or maybe my life experience has led me to hate scream fests, I don’t know. Others love them. Some folks will argue about anything, and apparently all of them follow me on social media. They really seem to enjoy the screaming.

So for this round of Choose and Defend, you get to pick between a conversation or an argument. Which do you prefer? Answers must fit in a sliced grapefruit and come on people:  Let’s make Laura B. proud.

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Responses to “Choose and Defend: Conversation or Argument?”

  1. Bud

    I come from a family that tip-toed around Rage from a sense of self preservation and I brought passive-aggression to a high art. I was well into grownuphood before I recognized that disagreements don’t have to be a choice between servility and towering inferno. There’s a middle way. It’s actually possible to respectfully disagree, a route I discovered after finally acknowledging that I am an extremely stubborn person. By choosing to be ok with the possibility I could be wrong and truly listening to the other side, I found that issues are rarely black and white and there’s nearly always a middle ground. This is known as the “Stop. You’re both right” school of conflict resolution. It prevents both ulcers and a blazing end to friendships.

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  2. TimberPuff

    If an “argument” is what it takes to get people to express and defend their opinions and exchange ideas, then I prefer argument. “Conversation,” in my world, is generally a set of non-committal grunts or platitudes intended to fill the silence or be polite.

    But why must we choose either? Let’s simply communicate by cross-posting links on each other’s social media feeds. Problem solved!

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  3. Robbo

    I’m on the fence with this one. It really depends on how passionate I am about the subject. I love a good conversation, but then I also love a good argument, especially when I know for a fact that I’m right and can end with a loud “In your face, bee-atch!”

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  4. James Stafford

    We have two for conversation and a Twitter vote for argument. If the arguers want to win this, they’re going to need to yell louder….

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  5. Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

    I like conversation, my upbringing was filled with screamfests and for years, confrontation meant inanimate objects being thrown as a means of making a point.
    It’s only been in the past few years that I have attempted the art of non argumentative confrontation, and it is still new and very nerve-wracking, but it usually winds up becoming a fairly civil discourse. A lot of it depends on the other party engaging, I suppose. To be honest, I used to love arguments, they came with an adrenaline rush, but……I do not like that type or rush anymore. I choose discussion. I hope I have not gone over my half-grapefruit limit.

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  6. M.

    Ideally, I prefer conversations. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Arguing is too exhausting.

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