"You are part of the problem"

Basically, if there's a major social/political issue that is dragging things down (too many to really list a random example) and a person you argue with is incredibly staunchly in favor of the status quo, is it incredibly rude to tell him "You know what? You are exactly what's causing this to continue. You are part of the problem."?

Probably.

Ok, what about it?

Well, you can do it in real life just fine. I wouldn't recommend doing it on this board, though...

edited 27th Sep '11 12:05:00 PM by USAF713

Depends on the situation/problem itself.

That sounds like a fact, rudeness be damned.

If there's a current problem, and they support the status quo over any attempts to fix that problem, they're supporting that problem.

That seems...pointless.

What's not so pointless, is pointing out when people make false equivalencies in such a way that it really undermines their own side's progress. And that happens all the bloody time.

I'll admit I've expressed this before, especially towards, as an example, social conservatives who don't place true matters of state like the economy first. "You're the type of person responsible for this entire mess." seems pretty fitting as a declarative.

Going "your part of the problem" is a good way to make someone go "proove it" or even worse, to entrench their view and declare fully for a cause they may not fully have believed in beforehand.

Just because it's rude doesn't mean it's not true.

Primitive binary thinking.

If you support the statu quo, you are indeed part of the problem.

However, that would imply that status quo is universally bad for all things, which is not necessarily true...

Seems like the sort of thing that would just antagonize people unnecessarily. Works better for getting the base fired up through self-righteousness.

^^

If you view the status quo on a certain subject as the problem that must be corrected, and somebody vocally supports that status quo, then the equation makes sense.

Yes, but I tend to take things Savage says at face value, due to his trademark style of editing.

Or that the proposed solution isn't worse. Which also isn't necessarily true.

Nah...  Lots of people go through their whole lifes without making a difference one way or the other.

edited 27th Sep '11 8:38:05 PM by joeyjojo

It's rude (though it might be true), and somewhat hypocritical. Fine, they're part of the problem; why are you not part of the solution?

Just to give a hopefully not too Flame Bait-y example: Cuban-Americans voters making it very hard to lift the embargo on Cuba, since they seem to be the most influential group when it comes to keeping it going.

That embargo was a dumb idea on several levels.

If you want to start a free nation we should start with free trade.

It's just trying to invoke With Us or Against Us.

...Why are you assuming that they're not?

Because although the status quo may be bad, that doesn't mean the proposed solution is any better...

The post that I was quoting was implying that telling someone that they're 'part of the problem' about something somehow inherently implied that you weren't ALSO trying to do something about it. Let's not go chasing after the Perfection Solution unicorn.