Why strong guys might have better debates

A very short musing

On Monday someone I know closely had a real go at me for wanting to cut state pensions and the winter fuel allowance. I put forward my standard arguments, found here, but was loudly called a ‘fuckpig’, multiple times, who thought the winter fuel allowance is ‘peanuts’ when it’s actually a vast sum of money, according to him. It’s not. I maintained my composure over my lamp chops and roast potatoes; indeed, I take great comfort in doing so. Although I can’t go into too much detail, I know for a fact my mum wouldn’t have let me behave like that, yet partly because this man is intimidating to her due to his presence or history, he gets away with it.

Aristotle once said the ideal man has a great intellect and a strong body too: ‘It's a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.’ I don’t know why he said that, but, when it comes to having arguments which get to the truth, and, being taken seriously in those arguments, physical strength, or, rather, the appearance of it, should help you out. Why? Debate is made worse by ad hominin and an increase in its temperature as indicated by raised voices and impassioned tones. Ad hominin and a raised temperature also makes a fight more likely to occur. So, physically fit people making that fight very costly for their comparatively weaker opponents, diminishes the chance of a fight, and, crucially, the two factors of ad hominin and a raised temperature which people know leads to fights, because, the weaker party rationally decides its against their interests because they might be beaten up in the fight.

Supporting evidence for this position is online debates usually descend into mud slinging a lot quicker than debates that are had in person partly because no one risks getting whacked. Road rage would be another example. Most people are very polite in person, I know this from speaking to hundreds of people in my campaign against the tobacco ban. An interesting test of my idea would be to see if weaker door knockers at elections face greater verbal abuse or not.

Physically fitter people having better debates and probably being taken more seriously is at least some reason to become physically fitter yourself. Now, I am no body builder, instead, I clothe myself in a jacket and tie and hope to be taken more seriously that way. I am regularly taken to be older than I really am as a result, indeed, a young lady said I look 35 the other day, though, she does have a great habit for teasing. In a heated debate, however, a tie isn’t much of a deterrent if you don’t want to be punched in the face.

P. S. The mentioned person did apologise