What to Say to People That Ask You to Compromise in the Discussion

Punchline:

Don’t compromise on the answer. Just ask to offer your interpretation.

“I’m well-versed in the topic and have years of experience, so I’m not a person that would be easily influenced, but I’m here to offer you a Zionists interpretation if they want to hear.”

If it’s not well received, they are just shit disturbers, and you shouldn’t waste your time.

Long Version:

In both a Facebook debate and in real life, I have gotten into several situations where the opponents put an ultimatum to proceed with the discussion.

They would say something like, “I don’t want to continue chatting with you unless you admit that Israel had done something wrong,”

Some of those guys do it in bad faith and don’t want to have a conversation. But some genuinely believe this is a two-sided conversation scenario where both sides are wrong, and the entrance to the discussion is both sides need to plead some guilt.

“I confess! I am guilty of the crime of being a dwarf!”

I don’t know which one I prefer to deal with because there is something very condescending for both the Arab and the Jews where a random white guy simply declares all of us as childish bad people, and we need to redeem ourselves before talking shit about ourselves. That’s colonialism. Anyway, I digress.

Because more important is not to fall into the trap of sacrificing Israel as an entrance fee to have a conversation with someone, the common denominator is that Palestinian are suffering. If that’s not good enough, here’s what you should say.

I start by mentioning that you know the topic well (hopefully, anyone reading this site should have more knowledge than most people.)

“Look, I’m already very well researched on the topic.”

I also tend to drop some credentials:

“I’m also the president of Progressive Zionists” or “I’ve been an activist for a long time, and it will be tough to influence at this moment. I do admit it’s not much of a debate if that’s what you are looking for. What I can do is simply offer you the side of the Progressive Zionists (or simply a Zionists).”

I find that I get a massive hit when I’m being honest that I’m not a person that would be easily influenced because I’m well-versed in the topic and have years of experience, and I’m here to offer an interpretation if they want.

As a general rule, asking if they have some time to listen to an interpretation brings their guard down.

I recently heard a sales coach discuss a unique strategy in “cold calling”. For whoever does it know, “cold calling” is the type of sale where you get a list of strangers and you call them, and you have a few minutes to get them interested in discussing your product a bit more.

The annoying telemarketers that call you during supper time are, unfortunately, “cold callers,” but there are also well-refinebusiness-to-businessss salesmen who call during office hours and heavily invest and prepare before they are about to call.

So back to the advice. She suggested that instead of calling and acting like something you are not, and you know that they know that you know that they know that you are a telemarketer, how about saying:

”Hi sir, I’m cold calling you, and if I can have 5 minutes of your time, I feel this would be a very valuable use of your time.”

While many of us would still hang up the phone, which would be an improvement over wanting to shove the phone does the caller’s throat, but for many people, especially in business, it does bring listeners’ guards down enough to give a few minutes of listening.

This is how it feels when you tell someone, “Look, I’m well-versed on the topic. Would you be interested to hear my interpretation?”. At least for me, it has been a true hit for me.