“Agree to disagree?”… No, let me tell you what I’ll agree to do…

I usually try to avoid political discussions in public because I have trouble keeping my autonomic nervous surges in check when I get angry.  Even if I manage to resist the outburst of rage, my shaking hands and trembling voice belie my attempt to stay under control.

However, I have fallen into the trap…

• A point of contention emerged in a small group meeting, and before I knew it, everyone in the room discovered my political affiliation.
• The topic of taxes comes up, and the person with whom I am conversing suckers me into thinking they have a reasonable concept of Capitalism… Alas, no.
• A conversation over a “common sense” issue… well, in politics there’s no such thing as common sense.
• An argument whether a picture of an armored military vehicle was taboo for inner city kids… I would say that shielding them from the scourge of gun violence by eschewing a fearsome picture of an M1A1 Abrams tank is far less important than fostering a burgeoning interest in a military career that would get them out of the cycle of inner city squalor…
• And other innocuous-sounding topics that I suffer from the hubris of thinking I can change someone’s mind about… Sisyphean complex, I suppose.

Their argument-ending statement was always, “Let’s agree to disagree.”

Never accept the argument-ending statement “let’s agree to disagree…”
Translation:

“Shut up, you’re wrong, and I have run out of patience resisting your logic.”

“I have run out of talking points I use as canned defense to logical challenges.”
No, I will not “agree to disagree.”
I will agree that the agreement failed because of invalid claims and a refusal to follow sound logic.
I will agree that you refuse to abandon your invalid mischaracterization of your opposition’s claims, foolishly clinging to emotionally-charged anecdotes of outrage with which you attempt to coerce unconstitutional legislation.
I will agree that you refuse to challenge your own invalid, minimal-truth propagandistic hearsay messages and accept the sound logic of an opponent whose views are irrationally abhorrent to you.

I will agree to accept your capitulation due to failure to challenge logic with valid arguments.

That’s what I will agree to do.