I was discussing government-provided healthcare (which I personally do not support) with a friend's girlfriend, who studied at Wellesley College. She expressed her ideas about how all people deserve to have treatment for illnesses even if they don't work and cannot pay for their own medical expenses, and as she saw that I didn't agree, she got more and more aggressive. Eventually she said something like,
"Maybe the reason you don't support government healthcare is because you have a negative outlook toward life because of all the stuff that's happened to you recently."
I didn't let her faze me, and replied along the lines of, "I don't think that's actually relevant to my perspective on the role and function of government," and later called her out for going ad hominem on me. Even so, her comment cut me a little. Not because I think she spoke truthfully, but because she took something personal and tried to use it to break my confidence when she saw that she couldn't win an insignificant political discussion.
I think women do this sort of thing when they feel cornered and they see that they lack the upper hand in the conversation, and I personally find it unkind and unpleasant. I usually just power through it, either calling out the personal attack or ignoring it and refocusing the conversation on the topic at hand, but I want to ask:
How do you guys deal with it when you're trying to have a stimulating conversation with a girl and she gets personal because she can't win the discussion by normal means?
"Maybe the reason you don't support government healthcare is because you have a negative outlook toward life because of all the stuff that's happened to you recently."
I didn't let her faze me, and replied along the lines of, "I don't think that's actually relevant to my perspective on the role and function of government," and later called her out for going ad hominem on me. Even so, her comment cut me a little. Not because I think she spoke truthfully, but because she took something personal and tried to use it to break my confidence when she saw that she couldn't win an insignificant political discussion.
I think women do this sort of thing when they feel cornered and they see that they lack the upper hand in the conversation, and I personally find it unkind and unpleasant. I usually just power through it, either calling out the personal attack or ignoring it and refocusing the conversation on the topic at hand, but I want to ask:
How do you guys deal with it when you're trying to have a stimulating conversation with a girl and she gets personal because she can't win the discussion by normal means?