As the title says, how often do you admit you’re wrong? Is it different when it’s a factual dispute versus something more subjective?

I make an effort to concede early if I’m in error. I think because my mother almost never admits fault. She’ll fall back to “that’s not what I meant” or similar deflections first, and that’s really annoying.

The last big factual error I made was about the distance of walking, and that’s where I learned about Taxicab Geometry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry ).

I think some people believe admitting fault is a sign of weakness, but I find it’s more of a power move. It takes strength to do it, and people can tell when you’re sweating and desperate. Usually it leads to resolving the conflict faster and cheaper, too.

(I expect some people will feel the urge to reply they’re never wrong. I’ll file that under never admits fault.)

  • Nibodhika
    2·
    2 hours ago

    An argument about emotions can be good or bad like any other, a simple “just because it offends me” is a bad argument because I can be offended by censorship and find your attempt to censor offensive. However a “Currently that word has been embraced by people with a certain mindset, thus by using it you’re giving those people more validation on their beliefs as they think you’re one of them” is a very clear argument as to why certain words can be hurtful socially.

    My culture is not a costume to me is sorta a weak argument, think about what people dress as for custome parties: Pirates, Ninjas, Vikings, Nuns, Nurses, etc… Most costumes are either of something that doesn’t exist or a culture (and sometimes both). However diminishing someone’s culture to just the clothes is offensive regardless of culture, and exalting a problem in that culture as part of your costume is also offensive. For example, as someone born in Argentina I wouldn’t be offended by someone dressing as a Gaucho, if a friend of mine wanted to dress like that for a costume party I would even lend him my mate. But I can see people getting offended by someone dressed as a soccer player with white powder under their nose (although me personally would just laugh it off, I can see that as being something someone takes offense with).