...to
change my mind. That's what I'd like to tell everyone who's ever tried to
trump an
argument with, "But my
friend's cousin's second-removed aunt by marriage once..." or "I heard about this guy who..."
Hell, even if you've seen it yourself, that doesn't make it a
trend. Let's quit with the
generalities and move to
specifics:
Someone once tried to tell me that
affirmative action is bad because the black man who was hired instead of his uncle was a poor performer for that particular job. One particular instance of failure on this system's part does not make it inviable. Show me some sort of
evidence, real evidence, that affirmative action is bad, and I might agree with you. But don't give me an anecdote.
People who refuse to wear
seatbelts often say, "But once I heard of this guy who, like,
died because he couldn't get out of his car and it caught on fire." Well, you take your chances, buddy. I'll stay on the safe side of
statistical evidence and wear my damn seatbelt.
My favorite instance of this is the guy in my
high school who said that "All women are
two-faced bitches" because some girl he once dated cheated on him with his
best friend. Of course, that's an
extreme case of drawing a broad conclusion from a single incident (
no pun intended).
You want to argue with me? Fine. Just don't insult my intelligence by using poor
logic and thinking that I'll be swayed to your point of view with a cute little story. Don't get me wrong; personal stories are very important. They can make impersonal statistics come to life. But there has to be some sort of real evidence behind the story. Otherwise, it's just that: a story.