How to Debate a Leftist

You will never win an argument by accepting your opponent’s premises. Republicans and “conservatives” serially lose arguments with the Left – and elections – because they accept the Left’s premises. There are so many examples. Let’s run through some.

“Masks work.”

The way to win an argument with Leftists who say that isn’t to counter them with contrary studies. It is to say: If “masks work,” then feel free to wear one. But you have no right to force anyone else to wear one, ever. Especially if – as you insist – “masks work.” After all, if they do – as you say – then they “work” for you and everyone else is none of your business.

That is how you counter a “masker.”

Or – more to the point – it is how you shut one up. By telling him to go to bugger off, essentially.  After you have told him to bugger off, there is no longer anything left for him to do but to try to force you to. And you have forced him to admit that it’s not about “masks working.”

It is about the forcing.

Which is fine because it’s honest – things are in the open, now – and you have retained your honor – by not agreeing with the premises of the Leftist.

“Seatbelts save lives.”

So what?

That is the right answer whenever a Leftist wants to argue with you about the rightness of forcing people to wear seat belts (and buy them, too) which is what the Leftist (and some “conservatives,” unfortunately) mean when they say “seatbelts save lives.” Just the same as they say about “checkpoints” where people who aren’t “drunk” are forced to stop and prove they are sober.

Regular exercise also saves lives – in the same generally-true sense that is true of wearing a seatbelt but even more so, because regularly exercising will make you healthier while regularly wearing a seatbelt may and probably will have not impact at all on your health because wearing a seatbelt only has an actual benefit if you actually wreck – and even then, it may not make a difference.

The point is that if you allow the Leftist’s premise about “saving lives” to stand and argue about tangential things such as how many lives are saved – or not – you will lose the argument. You will also end up arguing with the Leftist over other “life saving” proposals – such as the wearing of “masks,” for instance. It is not coincidence that this business of Leftists forcing “masks” on people came after people were forced by Leftists (abetted by “conservatives” who agree with Leftists) to “buckle up.”

And forced to stop – and prove they are not “drunk.”

The proper response is to say: The role of government in a free country is not to “save lives.” It is to protect rights. In a free country, people have the right to take risks – and to be left alone, even if you do not like it that they are doing what you consider to be “risky.”

Whether someone else “buckles up” is no more your concern than whether someone else works out regularly – or eats a balanced diet.

But what about the costs to society, says the Leftist?

These “costs” only exist (or are only a problem, rather) because of Leftists. Leftists pass laws that pass on the costs incurred by some people to other people – the ones whose actions haven’t cost anyone anything. The latter are the same people the Left says must be disarmed – because other people used a gun to commit a crime.

Challenge this premise and you have destroyed the Leftist’s argument for forcing people to “buckle up” – and for taking guns away from people who never used them to commit a crime.

Or for forcing them to buy what is styled “health insurance,” too.

One cannot insure health, by the way. One can be forced to buy a policy that “covers” medical expenses. The two are very different things. The Leftist says it is right to force people to buy medical insurance by styling it “health insurance,” which makes oilily makes it sound like what it isn’t. As if – having been forced to buy it – you are assured “health.” As opposed to being forced to pay – for costs you didn’t incur.

Leftists are experts at this.

But no one’s health is anyone else’s business. And no one has the right to force anyone else to buy “coverage” for anything. People have the obligation to pay their own bills – nothing more and nothing less. Which brings us to:

“Pay your fair share.”

Thomas Sowell knew how to challenge this premise. He asked: What is your “fair share” of what someone else has worked to earn? The answer, of course, is nothing. The Leftist relies on the oily emotional tug of “caring” about other people to gaslight them into accepting being forced to pay for other people. But the Leftist doesn’t really care about other people. He cares about using force to take other people’s money, to be redistributed by Leftists – who can then preen at other people’s expense about how much they care about other people.

The point is that “caring” isn’t the issue.

Taking what doesn’t belong to you is.

One expresses care for others by helping them – yourself. Using your own time, effort and money. That is admirable. Taking from others and forcing others is despicable.

If one concedes the rightfulness (sic) of taking anything from others then one has accepted the right (sic)  to take everything from others.

So don’t concede it. No one else has a right to a cent of what’s yours.

The only way to argue successfully against a Leftist who asks (when a Leftist uses that word, he always means he intends to force ) you to “pay your fair share,” is to tell him that there is no such thing as a “fair share” of the fruits of someone else’s labor.

People have a right to work – but not to take.

This put everything in its rightful place. Let the Leftist defend theft – by refusing to let the Leftist pretend it is anything other than theft.

That is how you counter the Left. You do not let the Leftist set the terms of the debate. You parse his words – and you don’t accept his premises.

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