TTPMO: People who can't argue

You know what I mean. You're having a conversation with someone, and you think things are going well, and all of a sudden you're off on some high-temperature tangent about whether high school cafeterias should be allowed to serve Brussels sprouts for lunch. What the hell?

This happens to me a lot when I'm talking to civilians, and I'm starting to notice it more and more as I get old and crotchety and further enculturated to the academic environment. Most people don't know how to argue properly. They can't tell the difference between a claim and evidence for the claim, they don't understand when they're being circular, they're caught up in some example and don't see the big picture...

Frankly, it's exhausting. I'm trying to get to the bottom of why Aunt Ethel thinks the moon landing was faked, and the best I can manage is to have her repeat some crackpot theory that she heard on the radio as though it came from some proper scientific authority. Or my sister-in-law's cousin is banging on about how bad cucumbers are for your health because he knew a guy who broke out in a horrible rash after eating a cucumber. Well, too bad for him, but there are a gazillion possible explanations for the rash other than the cucumber, and could you please pass the salad, thanks. Or Uncle Bill continually gives a slightly different answer every time I ask him why he thinks we shouldn't be eating genetically modified tomatoes: You know, it's because people should keep their hands off of nature just let food be the way it is. Oh, and also because there isn't enough regulation of our crops and these damn farmers should really let the government decide what works best. Um, wait, those two things are incompatible. But just as I'm about to point that out, my next-door neighbor chimes in to support Uncle Bill because she agrees with the conclusion and has failed entirely to recognize that the argument for the conclusion, frankly, sucks.

God forbid politics get involved, since that's when things get really ugly.

Why is this such a problem? Why do most people seem incapable giving legitimate reasons for why they believe the things that they say? Is this something weird that only academics do? I really hope not. It would be beyond depressing if most people are walking around believing all sorts of things, true or false, that don't have any rational connection to a decent argument. But I fear that that's the state of play these days, and guess what? Yep, it pisses me off.