Fighting Unarmed Opponents in a Battle of Wits

Largely out of boredom, I've found myself jumping to forum discussions on various topics. There is, of course, a pattern to these.

1.- Someone brings up a topic. It could be valid, it could be moronic.
2.- Someone else comments on this.
3.- Someone else changes topics slightly and begins a broader discussion, where they bitch about or defend things that hadn't been brought up.
4.- I jump in and rebut #3's moronic points with facts and examples
5.- Moron retaliates with conjecture and vague anecdotes from things they heard once from a guy who had a friend that knew someone who read something in a magazine once.
6.- I point out that I provided proof and they are giving an opinion based on nothing.
7.- They make random analogies that have no correlation to the argument at hand.
8.- I poke holes in their analogies, and finish off with a final restatement of the fact and figures, and tell them I'm done.

In the past couple days - the TTC and BOSE.

Someone was bitching that the TTC (Toronto Tranist Commision) does nothing to improve service. I pointed out the myriad of changes they're currently implementing. He said they weren't major (which isn't true), so I provided the link to the new trains coming on line this year. He compared it to Hong Kong's system. Someone else pointed out that comparing a Toronto to Hong Kong is a world of difference. I knocked down the bitcher's points again and then threw some math up to keep the whole thing on-topic (TTC getting rid of free parking). Nobody's responded since.

BOSE - If ever you feel like reading the same argument a dozen times, look up threads about ANY Bose hardware. It inevitably boils down to "I like my Bose" and "You got ripped off. Better stuff can be found for that price. It's not that Bose sucks, but that it's vastly overpriced for how much it sucks." Same story. Nobody had even attacked Bose yet in the thread (about a $100 pair of headphones), and a guy had to post all the reasons why his $2500-$3000 Bose system was worthwhile. I responded to each of his points with a cheaper alternative and presented my own system as a comparison. His only rebuttle was that I must like having multiple components (umm.. yah, then I can replace individual ones) and that my price must have been huge... when it was actually at least $500 cheaper than the minimum he'd have spent on his system, and had more features and better quality. Still awaiting a reply.

I love it when people are so convinced they're right that they argue themselves into a corner, surrounded by facts and figures that contradict every one of their arguments. This is why discussions about politics and religion are always so long and fiery... nobody's right.