Nothing can wrap up an argument like a lack of knowledge. If you find yourself in a situation where the discussion is getting out of hand, it's easier to just admit you don't know much about the subject and ask for the other person to fill you in. Or, you can plow ahead like a thick headed bull like in the stories below.
Reddit user, u/Gourd_Gamer, wanted to know the no-win situations when they asked:
Self-Defeating Argument
Coworker would constantly preach against GMOs, parabens, only use oils when sick, etc. She told me I was going to get cancer from my deodorant, and the corn I bought was 'mutant'.
Then she'd go outside and smoke 3 cigarettes every two hours.
Lizzie McGuire's Cartoon Self Is A Totally Reliable Source
Giphy
An old roommate of mine was trying to say we were blackmailing her when we were asking her to take out her trash, etc. She said "Watch the Lizzie McGuire Movie; there's blackmail in there and it's obvious that's what you're doing to me."
I believe it goes without saying that she never clean up after herself nor did she understand that movie....
Just Walk Away
My cousins are flat earthers.
When lack of evidence is just proof of a conspiracy, it's best to just disengage. You can't break into that prison - they have to break out.
Someone who is dating my roommate considers herself to be environmentally conscious. She claimed that napkins were bad for the environment and they increase one's carbon footprint. She ranted about it to me in my own home, even though I don't even buy napkins.
Maybe a week or so later, she noticed I use a re-usable coffee filter and berated me for not using disposable paper filters. I told her that using a re-usable filter cuts down on the amount of waste that we produce when brewing coffee -- so, not only do I not contribute to filling up landfills with paper filters, but I also save money from not buying them in the first place and just cleaning the plastic one.
She told me that since paper filters are biodegradable, there is no reason for me to refrain from using them.
But napkins are made of paper.
Napkins. Are made. Of paper.
She literally just wanted stand on a soap box and hear herself talk. She derives pleasure from telling others that they are wrong, regardless of whether or not they are actually wrong. There is no winning an argument with her.
You Know You Need To Work, Right?
We had a new assistant at work who was not fitting in with the team. I sat her down and talked to her about expectations and reviewed the responsibilities of the position several times. In one last effort to help her, I thought I'd see which parts of the job she liked. I asked her, "What skill do you think is your strongest skill?" And she said, "Delegating."
Not Knowledgeable About How Bodies Work
After asking them to go home because they were quite clearly sick with a cold, being told "don't be stupid, there's no such thing as colds, it's just allergies to the cold weather."
He Was Called "The Master Of Horror" Forever
He had an aversion to Stephen King. Thought Stephen King only wrote gory trash with no redeeming value. That everyone who read Stephen King had mental issues.
And his favourite movie was The Shawshank Redemption.
Even after I showed the credits both on IMBD and Wikipedia he refused to believe that that degenerate Stephen King was in any way, shape or form involved with his dearly beloved film.
When You Can't Believe Video Evidence...
One of my brother in laws said he liked Jay Z and put on Nothing but a G thang by Snoop dog and Dr. Dre. When I told him it was Dr.Dre and not Jay Z he called me a liar and that I was too young to know.
Showed him the youtube video and googled it.
To this day he still says it was Jay Z
Just Two?
A grandma, who spent her career cleaning hospitals, insisted that a woman only had two holes down there. I explained that there would be three (anus, urethra and vagina) cause how would a woman pee with a tampon in?
She claimed the would have to take it off. Finally called the hospital spoke to an ER doctor who was kind enough to quell the matter while on speaker phone. After her hung up she wasn't very convinced.
This Is Medically Proven!
I was just in the hospital for a small operation and my roommate is the stupidest person I have ever met.
You are supposed to be sober for an operation. He comes in late and drank some coffee and water in the morning. I then said he endangers himself because his stomach is supposed to be empty in case he has to throw up. He then said:
"If I drink a coffee now my stomach will be empty"
In the end I convinced him that this is not the case and made him talk to the doctors. He ended up being operated on in the afternoon.
*ultimate face-palm
From a friend in college, who when confronted with evidence that he was wrong stated:
"Don't cloud the issue with trivial facts."
Not To Be Political...BUT....
I'm not going to go "political soap box" here, but just about every die-hard Trump supporters hits this moment. I have several conservative friends, so it's not like I can't get along with people that hold different views, but when you see and hear people spew hate dialect that isn't based anywhere in reality, you kinda want to ask where they heard this or tell them the truth. Any Alt-Right talking point is a good jump off area, haha!
One woman, completely unprompted, started complaining about illegal Mexicans having more rights than US citizens, and when I tried to push for her sources, she said she just "knows people", and that we need that wall ASAP! Then came the magic sentence starter of "Well, I'm not racist, BUT....", and it confirmed she was a bigoted idiot. Anything more than a smile and a nod would lead to me being dragged down to her level, and being beaten with her expertise of being a PoS.
"I'm A Genius..."
I had a coworker within their first couple days ask me to hold up a monitor while they screwed it in with thumb screws. I said "here, let me show you how to do it by yourself. "
Their reply was: "No, No, I have done this ten thousand times. I am a genius, just hold it." If they said anything after that I wasn't listening anymore. I was actually in shock a little bit.
Change Is Constant
I was arguing with my cousin about evolution.
He said "how can an animal just change?" He still wouldn't believe me even when I i told him that there were skeletons of these animals before evolution and his response was "They're probably different animals."
The Duds Keep On Coming
I work in indoor hydroponic agriculture, one of the guys I used to work with believed that removing leaves helped the fruit grow bigger. He went ahead and stripped entire room. When confronted, he proceeded to voice that it diverted nutrients to the fruit... I looked at him like what the f-ck?
Did you miss out on 5th grade science class? Leaves are solar panels and nutrient storage, only time you defo a plant is when the canopy becomes too dense and light doesn't fully penetrate the canopy.
He now works at another facility, he also came out with this gem. "The Earth has to be flat because we perceive everything as curved because our eyes are round." That was my favorite.
We Need To Teach What "Objective" Means
People who say stuff like "ok, that's your opinion, but I have my own" when discussing about objective facts, like science issues, meaning of words...
Edit: A lot of people seem confused with my wording. I'm adding a couple of examples of what I mean:
Science: "Water boils at 70°C, that's my opinion"
Words: "In my opinion, the Spanish word 'hola' means 'dog'"
So basically, facts which are either true or false and not open to opinions.
It...Uh...Doesn't...Huh?
Giphy
When I was arguing with someone about why milk doesn't go in first when making a cup of tea (a very English debate) and his argument was "when you add boiling water to cold milk, you're warming it up, but when you add cold milk to boiling water, you're cooling it down, and I don't want cold tea".
I tried to explain how the end temperature will be exactly the same regardless but he was already celebrating his self-awarded victory.
Right....Dummy.
A co-worker went on a rant about how all teachers are lazy and only work from 8-3 while taking loads of holiday time while doing minimal work. I come from a family of teachers, so I could see the time put in at home, the lost weekends, the days of doing work till 7pm, the last two weeks of every summer holiday spent in school prepping the classroom for the next year, buying materials out of their own pocket because the school budget wouldn't cover it...
My co-workers responser?
"Well, I'm a parent so I know more about it than you do."
I nearly flipped my lid.
While the controversial topic is justifiably subject to condemnation, the show delicately depicted each characters' emotional turmoil and their families in the aftermath.
While many in these types of forbidden relationships don't end well, Redditor Sadebiru was curious to hear from those familiar with the situation and asked:
"[Serious] Redditors who slept with their teachers, what was the fallout after it happened?"
Consequences
These Redditors faced immediate disciplinary consequences for their involvement in their respective intimacies, but one suffered emotional trauma for years.
The Trauma Of Being Used
"My English teacher used me as a sperm donor. She slept with me until she got pregnant and then stopped. She didn't even bother to switch schools so I wouldn't know. This was about 50 years ago and it still crosses my mind and bothers me. So the fallout on my side was being mentally messed up for about 4 years and not being able to have a normal sexual relationship for a long time."
– readit2U
Predatory Soccer Coach
"I had a very inappropriate relationship with the assistant soccer coach. His contract was not renewed the next year and I was the subject of gossip, obviously, and labeled the school sl*t by my classmates. It was a very small private school so there was literally no way to keep anything secret. It was only later on I realized he'd taken advantage of me and was, obviously, a sicko who knew I'd fall for the flattery of an older guy the rest of the girls on the team thought was cute."
Sleeping With The P.E. Teacher
"My cousin Adrian slept with the physical education teacher. It was in the mid 1980s, and it right near the end of the school year. She was immediately transferred and he lost his school reference and was suspended for the remainder of the year, which was like four weeks from memory."
"he was no angel. He was an absolute player and he said he has no ill feelings about the whole thing at all. It didn't affect his schooling any further after that and he said he absolutely seduced her, it wasn't the other way around."
Left "Morally Conflicted" About Taking Action
"It was horrible. I was groomed by my English teacher. He said all the right things and I thought I was emotionally mature enough to handle it. I was not."
"I realized when I was 19 how messed up it was and very quietly told the bishop and the Victims of Sexual Misconduct Councilor (catholic school). My worst fear was that it was going to be a big public scandal and I didn't want my family's name dragged through the mud. So he permanently lost his teaching license."
"He is now dating a woman and I want to reach out to her so bad to her to ask if she knows, but at the same time I want that chapter of my life to end. I'm very morally conflicted."
– DeezMags
No Fallout
Instead of suffering a fallout per se, the following Redditors reflected fondly back on their romantic affairs.
Consenting Adults
"Nothing since I was 6 years out of high school by that point."
"We became friends a couple years after I graduated, eventually I told her I had something of a crush on her, she thought it was cute and flattering and sat on it for a while. One day she invites me out and we meet up, have a good time, we leave. Later that night she texts me when I'm work says she's got feelings too and wants to pursue it."
"We go on a couple more dates, see a movie (The Watch for those wondering), make out in her car afterwards like a couple horny teenagers. We do the deed that night, good times."
"Anyway, the age gap was something she couldn't get over, I was 25 and she was 48, different places in our lives with different goals. We still chat though."
The Chinese Teacher
"She was my Chinese teacher at a Confucius Institute, and is almost 10 years older than me, but I always had a minor crush on her."
"When her contract was about to expire and had to leave my country, we went out to dinner. She was leaving for one last trip before returning to China, so this would be the last time I would see her. I decided to take a shot and told her about my crush. We slept together that night."
"There wasn't really a fallout. We are still in contact, but don't really talk about that night."
Good Memory
The following academic flings were either highly erotic or wound up being blissful.
"Too Riskey To Continue"
"A few people found out and gave me sh*t about it, but really not a big deal for me personally. It was obviously more difficult for her. Rumours got back to other teachers who were not cool with it and she had some awkward conversations to navigate with the headteacher. She admitted we saw each other outside of school but denied anything sexual, which they did not seem to believe. She was told never to be alone with me and had restrictions placed on her ability to act as a chaperone on school trips etc."
"It didn't last as it was obvious it was too risky to continue but there was no bad feeling between us."
The French Teacher
"I slept with my French teacher about 5 years after leaving school, she was just as as I'd always imagined."
"Afternoon Office Nookie"
"It was in college, we slept together before we knew I was in her class. It was one of those lecture only classes with like 200 students in it so it wasn't a big deal."
"No fallout beyond some late afternoon office nookie now and then."
"She would text me pictures of what she was wearing under her outfit that day. I miss being young."
"The Best Thing That Ever Happened"
"I started dating the grad student that was teaching one of my undergrad classes, although because I took time off before going to uni and he started early I was actually older than him."
"The uni had rules against the sort of thing, of course. We weren't found out until the spring quarter, at which time we were told to cease and desist, but by the time this happened we were engaged."
"The administration were happy for us (and we were all friends there, the department was like one big family), so instead they told us that for the rest of the year my exams and juries would have to be handled by another professor and that our class sessions would be recorded to be sure there was no funny business or nepotism."
"20 years on, we're still married - it was the best thing that ever happened to either of us!"
In rare cases, some students have glorified their dalliances with teachers and bragged about their conquests among their peers.
Some – as those participating in this thread – expressed the absence of fallout or lack of emotional trauma.
But let's make one thing clear: a teacher having sexual relations with a minor student is considered illegal by the law and court opinion in most states, and children under the age of 18 cannot give consent to sexual conduct.
An improper relationship with a student can lead to a criminal conviction and imprisonment.