- #1
abhishek
- 40
- 0
I posted about this in Scepticism at first. There's a guy pushing magnetic "health and wellness" treatments and other dubious gadgetry, and today he brought along a friend/colleague to "provide more information". Against my initial wishes, I let myself slip into a debate with them, which very nearly degenerated into a right shouting match. :yuck:
I spent most of the time basically explaining the meaning of rigorous scientific testing, anecdotal evidence, and relativistic ethics (don't ask). And they didn't get it. In fact, they didn't care. They robotically repeated their party line that they weren't in the medical field at all (yet they dropped names with "Dr." and mentioned medical journals). Not that I wasn't expecting it. Still I went as far as directly calling them snake-oil hawkers. Fortunately, they tired of it too and my parents tactfully intervened and they left. :grumpy:
Clearly, I'm not happy with how it went. What do you think I should've done? Kindly smile and nod and hope they'd go away? Patronisingly agree, yet lie so they'd leave? Vengefully kick them out? Or do exactly what I did?
How do you handle these people?
I spent most of the time basically explaining the meaning of rigorous scientific testing, anecdotal evidence, and relativistic ethics (don't ask). And they didn't get it. In fact, they didn't care. They robotically repeated their party line that they weren't in the medical field at all (yet they dropped names with "Dr." and mentioned medical journals). Not that I wasn't expecting it. Still I went as far as directly calling them snake-oil hawkers. Fortunately, they tired of it too and my parents tactfully intervened and they left. :grumpy:
Clearly, I'm not happy with how it went. What do you think I should've done? Kindly smile and nod and hope they'd go away? Patronisingly agree, yet lie so they'd leave? Vengefully kick them out? Or do exactly what I did?
How do you handle these people?