You know, Old Guy, you remind me of a relative of mine. If someone makes a comment, he will contradict them, and the argument is off and running. And he won't quit until the person who made the initial comment throws up his hands and quits in disgust. He'll argue about anything:   politics, religion, sports, the weather. . . . And he never argues fairly. He ducks and dodges, he knows every fallacy in the book and uses them with some skill (straw man, ad hominem, begging the question, red herring—he's so fond of red herrings, you'd swear he was Scandinavian!—he uses them all).

Recently, I tried something on him just to see how it played out. We'd had one of our more heated discussions some time back. The next time I saw him, a month or so later, I brought the subject up again, but I took the position he had taken before. He disagreed with me—surprise surprise! He took the position that I had taken previously, and as usual, he wouldn't quit until finally I said, "Okay, you're right! Just forget it!" He was so busy smirking that he didn't notice that I was smirking a bit myself. I was sure now that I had his number.

So that pretty well nailed it down. He doesn't care about facts and he has no regard whatsoever for the truth. He just has this pathological need to win arguments.

Well, the difference between the two of you is that he can argue either side. I don't think you're quite that versatile.

Don Firth