For instance, I’m in a social setting talking with acquaintances, one of whom is lauding the Scandinavian (and to an extent, Canadian) maternity programs. Some countries give you a year or more off when you beget a brat. And the person with whom I’m talking starts mentioning how “wonderful” it is that such a program exists. “Wondeful? For whom?” I ask. “For you? What about me? What about John in accounting, or Steve in shipping & receiving? What about the girl in the cube next to you, who now finds her workload doubled in your absence? Is it wondeful for us?”

Of course it’s fucking not wonderful for us.

And the salient point which must be made here, the question that needs to be asked, is by what right do you exercise this power? By what right can you legitimately claim to force me to work for you? And, like just about everything else, your argument boils down to brute force. Because it’s popular.

And eventually, after several such arguments, one gets slapped with the “disagreeable” label, as in, why are you so disagreable? Why do you have to always be right? &c.

Now, I don’t have to always be right. As long as the other people stop being wrong.

Generally, I disagree with you when I believe that you are wrong. Maintaining my position in the face of your arguments does not make me any more disagreable than you. After all, you don’t agree with me, either. So, for starters, when you open the can of worms, do not expect that you will be able to just “let it be” if the conversation turns heated a moment later. I recognize that the desire to do so is coward-speak for “I’m right, but I’ll let you think that you’re right – if I can only convince you to stop exploding my arguments, I’ll leave here and you’ll feel like you lost.”

No, I refuse to fucking play that game. Which, consequently is why I don’t talk politics with strangers if it can at all be avoided. In the event that discourse ensues, it very well may be the case, that I’m Jekyll & Hyde-ing into “dickhead-contrarian-anarchist” mode, but that’s only because I’m even more convinced that you’re wrong, and you’re obviously neglecting reason, so I’m appealing to brute force and volume, with which your persistent denial of reason indicates that you are quite familiar, since it’s your modus operandi. Now, I’m not going to beat the piss out of you because you’re disagreeing with me.

But, by your (specious) reasoning, It’d be ok if I did.