Don't Argue with Stupid...

in #philosophy6 years ago (edited)

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Don't Argue with Stupid...

The more we learn about the true nature of the current world the more passionate we get about changing it and educating others about what is going on. This is natural and a good thing but most of us at some point have gotten into a debate or argument, said all the facts then they ignore everything and they continue to argue the same illogical points over and over. We then get so frustrated it devolves into something that only makes us feel angry or sad that we lowered ourselves to such a poor level of discourse.

The gnostics many centuries ago separated people into three types. While they did this to find who they might be able to "enlighten" in other words share their secret knowledge with. It is equally applicable today and can be very valuable on smaller scales as well as the grand scale they were talking about. Let's walk through what this looks like.

The first type of person is the hylic, and the vast majority of people are at this level. They are the lowest order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their thinking is entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis. In other words, they do not have the mental flexibility to evaluate new ideas that are contradictory to their current beliefs. They are "stupid" or at a base level of mental ability.

These people are very easy to identify, if you give a couple facts that they are unaware that give strong evidence your point of view is correct and they completely ignore them or strawman them and go off on totally separate topic attempting to remove their cognitive dissonance then you're dealing with a hylic. In this case, the only thing you can do is plant a seed so to speak, give a couple more facts, and wish them a good day. Do not waste your time and energy with these people, you will get dragged down to their level end up depleting yourself of energy and both you and the other person now are both worse off, you lose, and there is no winning here. Now with the seeds planted, hopefully with enough time these people can become curious enough about what you said and will turn into the second type of person and come back to you with a more open mind.

That brings us to the second type. The psychic they are "soulful", partially initiated, matter-dwelling spirits. This means that with some effort you can reason with them and in time they can see reason. They will not discount the facts you present and show some interest. They will not instantly come around but will try to discuss the topic honestly with you. These are the people you should spend most of your time and effort on, and quickly separating them from the hylics is important so you don't waste time and effort.

The final type is the pneumatic. They are the"spiritual", fully initiated, immaterial souls escaping the doom of the material world via gnosis. What this means is that they have free will and fully understand how to think and reason. When you speak with these people you will know it right away, they will respond directly to the facts you give with a meaningful response, if they do not know the facts you present they will search out additional information to confirm or refute your argument. These types are very enjoyable to speak to, though there are very few in the world, far less than one percent of people are truly "enlightened" or able to fully think for themselves. They won't always agree with you but they will give you sound reasons why they don't.

So when we are trying to help others we have to understand who we are dealing with and save ourselves a lot of headaches and wasted energy by quickly identifying who we are debating/discussing topics with. It is also very important to identify where we are at and try our best to become a pneumatic and stay in this mindset whenever we discuss topics with others.

Thanks for reading :)

Oz