"This book will convince you" -- Argument by Booksmacking (日本語+汉语字幕)

[@adamdavidlong]

Thanks for this. I think your first point about appearing reasonable is very important and I appreciate the reminder. Too often I find I let my emotions get the best of me and I’m tempted to go into “attack mode.”

[@XiaosChannel]

I feel it takes a lot of patience (or whatever you'd call it, social energy?) to be reasonable. I used to get a high when I'm debating someone on “attack mode,” but I kind of realized if I'm honest with myself, I could tell from their responses, they aren't listening. So I kind of had a "WTH am I even doing" moment. I could no longer pretend I was arguing with them for their own good. It was for me, myself, and no one else. It was for that high. I was addicted, and perhaps still am.

[@eno88]

Also atheist here. If it takes reading an entire book to convince you of something, it's a weak method. Truth should be obvious, easily demonstrated. It only takes one single indisputable bit of evidence. As opposed to a book that raises more questions in the first chapter alone.

[@XiaosChannel]

When I'm recommended a book, specially by the religious, a lot of the times they boils down to lots of words for very little actual information or reasoning. I certainly look out for such signs to avoid reading low-quality material.

[@adamdavidlong]

BTW, imho as a native speaker of (U.S.) English I think your English is tremendous and you are pronouncing things just fine and you are very easy to understand.

[@XiaosChannel]

ah, thanks man... I've had many people giving me various opinions on how good my english is. Sometimes I feel it's good enough, sometimes I feel my pronunciation/language skill is pulling me back from delivering my message... It kind of depends on my mood for the day. Although, the audio quality itself has definitely improved since this video, that's something I'm happy about.

[@dhaen]

Just found you channel and love it. Especially and in particular 日本語 and minutiae of associated languages. Having watched this video and several others of yours, I believe you seem to spend your time very well and (as you wished) this video did make me think. And while I feel your arguments in this video are very intelligent, I believe I found a small flaw. The problem with recommending only a segment of a book or video is context, you probably read/viewed the whole thing so your view is tainted/affected by the whole thing. Someone who experiences a portion may not absorb the expected knowledge.

[@XiaosChannel]

the more time you invest the more accurate picture you get of the thing people recommend. it's always a balance between that accuracy and practicality. that said, knowing things can be out of context gives you that additional option to read more, so thanks!

[@protonjinx]

please improve on your sound quality (volume). you got an obvious accent but nothing wrong with your english.

[@XiaosChannel]

oh yeah my english teacher friends here in japan told me all about my accent like unable to pronounce "th" in words like "thought" This is the last video I filmed without a proper mic! Now I've got one setup, audio quality will be improved in the future. I'm still learning, so if there's more things I could improve from those future videos please tell me :)

[@NeilThe604Atheist]

Do what I do man, look into the book/article... whatever, then evaluate if your time is worth it.

[@XiaosChannel]

That's something I certainly do before deciding to commit my time into! Although evaluation itself also takes time so sometimes I don't even do that. It all depends.

[@adamdavidlong]

Also, sorry if I missed it, but I would be curious for your take on how to respond to the - all too common - tactic of “booksmacking” (thanks for that term btw - I had not heard that before). It seems to me that in many cases this tactic is NOT used in good faith. Instead it amounts to “you are not entitled to an opinion until you have read this book that I declare has provided the final answer on this contested question.” I am curious for your thoughts on how to respond to this while appearing reasonable to your audience. I wonder about a response like “I appreciate the suggestion, but could you please respond to the argument” As I say, perhaps you did address this in your video but I missed it.

[@XiaosChannel]

I made up the term "booksmacking", because I think it would be helpful to remember what this is about. I heard another term called "biblesmacking" being used, and this video is kind of generalizing upon that idea. If I'm pretty sure people are in bad faith, I would disengage and go spend my time on something (or perhaps someone) more constructive. I could afford to do that because I usually don't have an audience. Performing in front of an audience is really another problem on its own, and I can't help much there. But I would imagine it's something along the lines of "well it's gonna take days to finish a book, are you gonna let everyone sit and wait? how about something we can do right here right now?" If I have to talk about it in person, I would ask "what made you come to the conclusion, that the book has the ultimate answer?". If this is the Bible, it usually then comes down to one of several reasons I've heard many times already, and I would know how to respond from there. In general, I would try to understand how my interlocutor got there, and see if it makes sense to me.