Arguments stupid people use

EDIT: I saw a new version of that first one involving cyclists and pedestrians to argue against helmets. Funny and sad.

I usually shoot back - why should I pay for the bloated military and never ending wars?

Why should I pay for corporate welfare?

anything. Middle class gets most of the tax breaks - the top 5% are the ones paying, as shown in that way they were the ones getting the taxcut in Trumpnoncare.

You should not have children if you can't afford them is another one like that. Then logically they should be against the child tax credits and deductions - they don't need them as they can afford the kids - and as if no one's income ever changes for the worst.

By the time the middle class deductions and credits are considered, are these right wingers really actually paying in to the system, so they can sanctimoniously declare that they are paying for the poor people's health insurance, etc.?

We are talking about right wingers and their snotty claims that they are working to pay for food for (lazy non-job having) people.

But you're opposed to contraception, right?

I have dedected that in the end, what they really want to do is make sexual activity a privilege of people with about as much money as they have. You see them saying "shut your legs" to women - it's that they want them to remain celibate, because they are too poor for this "privilege."

the wealthiest people hire people to find as many deductions, credits, subsidies, loopholes, etc. as possible. Wealthy people are the ones who lobbied to get most of the deductions put into our tax code. They write off most everything as a business expense. They have ways of making out like bandits while reporting a business loss on paper.

Middle class isn't "median income", middle class is a sociologically defined lifestyle, whether they're making "median income" or six figures. And most middle class people make six figures.

Middle class people don't take standard deductions on their taxes, they itemize.

Here's the rule of thumb or "accepted" idealization of a middle class household:

A middle class family owns their house (mortgage and tax deductions). A middle class income earner might own their own business or works as a professional somehow (business deductions). A middle class income earner typically has a degree or requires training that must be maintained - or sends their kids to school (student loan/educational loan deductions/child care deductions). A middle class income earner tends to have a retirement plan (retirement savings deductions) and long-term investment tax shelters (more deductions).

A middle class income earner will make whatever deductions they can pre-tax, to lower their income to a more median wage earner where they might be able to take advantage of tax credits to offset the income as well as the itemized deductions. Most middle class households end up paying taxes on stated incomes that are at least a quarter less than they actually make as "take home", and a lot of their income is deferred or set aside for specific expenses that are also tax deductible later on in life - set aside in educational funds, health savings accounts, and various types of trusts.

The ability to set aside at least half your income after the basic food/clothing/shelter/utilities/transportation/insurance bills and other household or profession debts are paid tends to set the demarcation of working class to middle class.

And most people who can put half their income aside for entertainment and/or savings also know how to drop their tax liabilities to a level that they can deduct a large amount of that "extra money" and not pay as much for the privilege of using the public resources and infrastructure to support the lifestyle their income provides for them - unlike most working households whose income basically just pays the bills every month and leaves very little left over.

Most economists identify the middle class - if they can agree on the metrics - as starting with the top 15 - 10% of income wage earners in this country. The wealthy start at the top 5%.
Everyone else is either identified as "average taxpayer" - working class, working professionals (my bracket), working poor, or poor. The group of wage earners who can't afford to set aside enough savings for interest earnings to start kicking in. Who live paycheck to paycheck, with maybe only 10% left over after all the bills are paid, who depend on credits and the standard deductions rather than itemizing and deferring to lower their tax liabilities in April; who depend on their refunds to be able to "break even" on their outstanding debts, or if they have been able to keep their budgets manageable, replace an appliance or make that one repair they've been putting off because they've just not been able to save the money over the year.


Haele

They are mostly middle class themselves, temporarily embarrassed millionaires, who should not have to pay for anyone else's health care. I just question if the math shows they really are.

They will also rant on about how the rich pay more in taxes than the not-rich do (didn't that latest snobby chick say so?). So we are supposed to feel guilty that they may pay for something to benefit the poor, who haven't "earned" it the way the rich did.

if only for infectious diseases, everyone should want everyone to have health care.

not to catch it?"

- You can't prove that God doesn't exist. God exists!

- Global warming is a hoax. Look at all of the snow outside!

- White supremacists - The Bible says that we should hate Jews! (Seriously)

- Transgender people are draining military resources and morale! They're purposely going into the military to get sex changes!

- An armed society is a polite society (because there's nothing better than ethics based solely on fear, right?)

"I just shoveled a foot of global warming" even though it is a logical result of warmer global temperatures.

5000 disagrees.

Because clearly that ONE scientist holding a contrary opinion matters more than nearly everybody else.

Therefore that one scientist is Galileo.

Stepped into that one..........

Of course, we're not talking about scientists vs. scientists with Galileo

I love the "therefore God exists" arguments.

Here's a great resource for them:

[link:http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm|

as though both are competing, empirical, equally valid theories

There is zero evidence of creationism, yet the RWNJs act like it's a "competing theory" with evolution. It's not a scientific theory at all! No scientist (minus a few outliers, maybe) actually thinks creationism is a valid theory. There is as much evidence for creationism as there is that the Odyssey really happened as described in the story.

There is no empirical (i.e. scientific) evidence to substantiate creationism, however wingnuts still repeatedly demand to have it taught as though it has some basis in scientific fact.

The Egyptian god Atum masturbating and spitting out humans?

Never really goes beyond that question.

disqualified from this "proof." Honestly these people have never even thought through this argument, and they never have a response for it as AT BEST it's an argument for deism, meaning some god may exist. There is nothing in it that justifies the existence of their god vs. gods such as Shiva and Krishna, the Buddha, Odin, Zeus, the Great Spirit, etc etc.

I have seen many debates between atheists and Christians (usually evangelicals who read "proof" from the Christian bible during the debates) who will make ridiculous arguments about how a moth turning green (whatever -- take your pick) is PROOF that god exists. They are frequently allowed to get away with the fundamentally stupid and incorrect notion that such "proof" proves that the Christian god of the Christian bible exists, and created everything they see, instead of having it pointed out to them that even if one agrees that some moth turning x color proves god there's no reason it proves their god.

The idea that we don't need a sky fairy watching us 24/7 to be good people is totally foreign to them.

so, i'm supposed to trust you to be a moral person after you tell me that it's all contingent on your continued belief in something no one can see, hear, smell, touch, taste, or prove? and that if at any moment you can decide it doesn't exist then there's nothing stopping you from murder, rape, theft, etc.?

somebody's watching.

"Hitler was a card carrying lefty"

"There's no poverty in America. If you're homeless in America, you're part of the one percent of the world!"

"Everyone starts in the same place. If you're poor, it's because you don't WANT it bad enough!"

"Every unemployed person is obviously a lazy leech welfare queen!"

"Pulling myself up by my bootstraps and starting my own business worked for ME!"

and you might think that that other position would be stupid to implement because of its consequences, but some arguments can only come from stupid people.

is because they are removed at a young age and eaten.

by telling us it tastes like chicken.

so we should not allow trans soldiers (even though most trans people of both genders don't menstruate).

Someone in some IT call center has an Indian accent, therefore brown people are from other countries and can't possibly have been born in America.

Even though the census tells us 4 million US citizens have South Asian ancestry, every person you come across with South Asian ancestry is one of the 40,000 H-1bs from South Asia, and not one of the 99% who are US citizens. Don't let our American accents and passports fool you.

Angry white males who run over protestors with their cars are just hard workers trying to get home to feed their kids but these damn lazy worthless liberals keep getting in the way.

If someone is shot by the cops or arrested and throw in prison, they obviously did something wrong and deserved it. Just obey the law and you won't be shot.

And both should be banned.

Cops should not have guns either. Give them batons like british cops

People have killed more people than guns have.

The obvious solution is to ban people. Nuclear weapons can help with this.

guns only get them going really fast. So it's not the gun's fault you loony liberal.

If people didn't have guns, they would just use lawn darts and pinking shears.

All guns should be confiscated and recyleds into door knobs .. Because the the Lord knows we all need door knobs.

Just like Somalia and Afghanistan. Everyone has guns, loves God, hates gays, and nobody is mean to each other over there.

Billy Bob with his guns will defend us against tyranny and defeat our own military with their drones and missiles and satellites should they ever turn against us.

Saw this on a bumper sticker years ago. They probably removed it for fear of vandalism.

the Democrats were the slaveholders (so apparently today the Democrats are still the racists)

The Democrats were the racists in the 60s (so that's why more black people support them now).

Protestors are people who don't have jobs. Right wingers never protest since they have to go to work.

... which is why I keep gleefully reminding them: "How many KKK and white supremacists and Nazis voted for Hillary? Can you name a single one? I'll be waiting."

Waiting forever, that is.

Both groups are at the Inauguration, for instance.

The one I hear a lot from the Teahad during these gatherings is "GET A JOB YOU BUMS!"

I respond back "YOU'RE IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE AND TIME I'M IN, ASSHOLE! What's YOUR excuse??"

I didn't vote for Trump. I:
Voted for Stein
Voted for Johnson
I didn't vote

That one always makes me

Would you rather those kids stand in front of your house with no money, no job and nothing to do?

This one pisses me off more than any other. All my friends are liberal, we ALL work and don't expect "government handouts".

then you're a hypocrite.

He's a successful business man, he can certainly run the country.

He's rich, so he doesn't need money from lobbyists, he will do what is right.

*I* grew up with abusive parents and managed to turn out right.

My company did away with our pensions 20 years ago, so why should ______ have pensions?

A lot of the parents would tell me their parents beat them and they turned out all right. I'd tell them, well, I talked to your children at school and I'm here now asking you questions you have to answer, how well is it working for you now? Always made them pause.

Logical Fallacies.

Instead of effectively proving their premises to be valid, they rely on distractions from the argument, logical fallacies.

Look at this site and recognize some of the more popular techniques to obfuscate the fact that they can't prove what they're saying is true:

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/eng207-td/Logic%20and%20Analysis/most_common_logical_fallacies.htm

bomb them back to the stone age.

"We didn't necessarily vote FOR Trump. We voted to shake things up; drain the swamp."

"Tax cuts are great for the economy and actually increase government revenue."

When a headline starts off with "Dinesh D'Souza/Pastor/Trump Appointee: "

"What other countries have you lived in, sir, that you can attest that America isn't that great?"

"First Trump; Then OUR Turn!"

"They're only words... they have no power over you unless you let them."

Many, many mean-spirited people use that particular bit of idiocy to better rationalize their own ugly behavior, and pretend ignorance of what "mere" words have done to humans throughout our history...

Will we then remove statues of Washington?

Banning Muslims is about our security.

"I have the best words"

Anything about "social justice warriors" sticks in my craw as well.

"John F. Kennedy was a conservative." Which obviously is why he once stated, "I'm proud to say I am a liberal."

"A rising tide floats all boats." Bullshit.

"Ronald Reagan won the Cold War." Again, bullshit. The USSR went broke.