Wednesday morning subway fun (a Sometimes I Just Don't Get People tale)
Sat on the Q train this morning… and sat… and sat. They said the train in front of us had a pulled emergency brake, but we'd be moving shortly. All told, the sitting and then the slow moving afterward, slowed down the trip probably 45 minutes.
After the slowness, once we were moving again, a discussion 8 or 10 seats away impinged on my consciousness. I missed the beginning, but the part I got (they were loud) went something like this:
She: No, you may not show me how to fold my newspaper.
He: It keeps hitting me.
She: Look, I moved so you could sit.
He: It's a simple thing to do.
She: No. Leave me alone.
He: …
She: Look, that woman is taking up more than her allotted space. That's the problem.
They went on like this for more than five minutes, but didn't add anything interesting to the conversation.
Tedious? Yes. But it exemplifies a type of argument I hear all too frequently: keep repeating your point, over and over, in increasing volume, and eventually you'll win the point (or so the theory must go). I just don't get it. When I debated, I knew the way to win was to keep adding weight to your argument (not repetition; new information).
Well, on second thought, I guess it doesn't speak to that point. It was just kind of amusing in a tediously annoying fashion. (If they'd been nearer to me—if I'd actually been able to see them—it probably would have been far less amusing, but since the subway car was full, and all I got was their voices, it was chuckle-worthy.)
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