I know a lot of people like to say that reason isn't how you change people's minds and that this entire section of my site is therefore wrong-headed and in vain. I'm aware that reason isn't by itself going to convince most people of anything meaningful, but I'm also aware that it plays at least some role for most people. And most of these articles aren't actually about how to reason validly. Persuading people through debate is largely a contest of personality and charisma and manipulation of psychological biases, so that's what a lot of my articles here are about.
I should also point out against such a criticism that there is a strong correlation between how willing someone is to change their beliefs when they're wrong and how much of a role logic plays in doing so. That is to say, while most people won't be convinced to change their core beliefs by reasoning with them, most of the people who won't are the ones who won't be convinced by anything. The more willing a person is to change at all, the more likely it is that reason is how you can change them, and also the more likely that they're a good person, and are thus worth more to convince (since they're more devoted to their beliefs, and make a better friend too).
Also note that in this section of the site I often talk about "good people" and "bad people" under the assumption that whoever is arguing for something irrational or evil is a bad person and vice versa. I realize this assumption doesn't hold 100% of the time; but it's accurate in the majority of cases, and "bad person" is shorter than "person arguing for something bad".
Philosophy
The Misrepresentation and underappreciation of philosophy
Know when to give up on people
"Open-mindedness" means nothing.
Relativism is not inconsistent (as much as I hate to admit it...)
Propaganda words and phrases that don't merit their own articles
Reasoning
Statistics are not the trump card you think
Tu Quoque - (often) not a fallacy
Things that are not Ad Hominem
What If Everyone Thought That Way is one big fallacy
Conversation
Inflammatory techniques: How to provoke your opponent
Observations on Linguistic Connotations
The Condescending Fake Intellectualism of Conservatives
Conversational Terrorism (external)
Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell (external)
Platforms
The disaster of Reddit's voting mechanic
Tag systems and the problem of variant tags
Platform designers: got common sense?
Problems with rating systems and how to fix them
Specific arguments
Double Standard Arguments Against Young Earth Creationism
A Critique of The Field of Evolutionary Psychology
Don't amoralize your moral arguments
There is no history of philosophy
There's no such thing as national debt
Trying to change a living language
Languages are not easier to learn as a kid
Oh my god, please stop writing dashes without spaces
Punishment and reward are not alternatives
The common error behind leftist economics
Base 6 is the optimal number system (external)
Rebuttals
Wikipedia's neutrality policy is a sham
Yes, Tyler Curtis, The Bystander Effect Exists
Rebuttal to Kurzgesagt's "The Origin of Consciousness"
Rebuttal to Insula Qui's "The Ethical Notions Of Personhood And Savagery"
Rebuttal to Shane Killian's "Ustupidtarianism in 4 Stupids"
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