Dammit

Check out this gay marriage debate over at Mrs. du Toit's. She ended up closing the comments, but not before an individual named Doug threw in that lovely gem of a debate tactic, the "face it, you've already lost" card.

I fucking hate that.

I wish the Mrs. hadn't closed off the comments. There were a couple of things I would've liked to add.

I would've liked to expand upon my statement that we (heterosexuals and homosexuals alike) already have equal rights: We can all marry anyone of the opposite sex. Someone else over there pointed out that while this is true, I can marry someone I love whereas a gay man cannot.

Given the chance, I would've added, "That's correct. But since we're talking gay marriage being recognized in the eyes of the law, I'll bet it would be several times easier for me to provide a court-worthy definition of 'woman' or 'opposite sex' than it would be for you to legally define 'love,' and so I'm interested in how you intend to present your case to the courts and lawmakers."

Because I think people are going about this in a stupid, assheaded way.

What gets me, what really, really gets me about this gay marriage debate thing, is that some people seem to want to "win" the debate as quickly and effortlessly as possible, and so instead of, you know, debating, they end up just scrutinizing every word that their "opponent" says in hopes of catching them in an anti-gay slur, or proving that that person in fact hates gay people.

And people fall for it, too. People let it happen to themselves, and then get all flustered and confused trying to explain to their accuser that no, they don't hate gay people. And then some asshole spits out "face it, I have already won this debate" or some other idiocy, and it's over.

Bullshit, I say. Boool-sheeet.