# Did I ask you for an argument?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 1, 2001, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730 "2001-10-01T06:42:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/1 "2001-10-01T06:42:58Z")
Me: So I’ll have another gap in my paychecks, but that job wasn’t right for me anyway. I’m just not cut out for phone solicitation. Give me an adding machine and a cubicle; that’s where I shine.
Know It All: But what’s stopping you from practicing, and getting better at phone solicitation?
Me: I did practice. I practiced until I could read the script without stumbling–
KIA: But you’re saying you can only work adding up figures. You’ll never get a job if you restrict yourself to one thing.
Me: I’m good at adding up figures. I could practice phone solicitation all day and I still wouldn’t be as good at it as at something I already know how to do.
KIA: But what’s stopping you from taking the script home and practicing? [interrupting] You can’t just go around saying “oh, I can’t do this” [blah blah blah I can sell pockets to a kangaroo so what’s wrong with you]
Me: If a person doesn’t have the time or the money, I can’t change that. They wanted me to take it to the point of obnoxiousness.
KIA: Well now, why do you say ‘obnoxious’?
Me: [sub]what?[/sub]
I can’t really convey the tone, but it wasn’t a meek ‘what?’; it was more of an Am-I-high-or-are-you ‘what?’.
But for fuck’s sake. I’m stupid enough to answer truthfully when you ask if I’m working, and instead of listening sympathetically, you have to make it a fucking **argument**?! So you think you’re helping me by telling me “what’s what”? If you wanna help, pay me to deep-clean your filthy apartment for the first time in six fucking years. Do you realize some areas of your kitchen counters are **brown**?
But of course, you’re perfect.
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### Author:  [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/2 "2001-10-01T06:51:42Z")
I understand. I know these kinds of people.
One of my friends (who is really a nice person, most of the time) likes to remind me how “ignorant” I am. Which is true, on a certain level. I don’t have a well-rounded knowledge on many issues, like she does. (Though I consider myself at least slightly above average in general.) But, OK, so I am “ignorant”. But at least I am not too ignorant to know that you DON’t borderline **STALK** celebrites that you have taken a shine to! (Which is what this woman has done. More than a few times.) But, she has her own share of problems, I don’t want to seem uncharitable. But still - she kinda, sorta STALKS people! (In a harmless but slightly unsettling way.)
It all comes down to this - some people are too busy preaching to you to realize that they have brown kitchen counters!
(::checking to see how clean the kitchen counters are. Gaak! Not very clean at all!:: ) I’d best watch who _I_ give advice to as well! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/3 "2001-10-01T07:38:32Z")
I’m sorry, this cubicle is Abuse. Arguments are down the hall, second cubicle on the left.
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### Author:  [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/4 "2001-10-01T12:42:56Z")
But you can’t have an arguement by simply saying the opposite of whatever I say!
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### Author:  [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/5 "2001-10-01T13:03:16Z")
Yes I can.
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### Author:  [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/6 "2001-10-01T16:15:13Z")
An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition… [it] is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
Esprix
[sub]No it isn’t.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/7 "2001-10-01T16:26:43Z")
Bet you’re queer.
[sub]Oh, wait. He is. Damn.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@tradesilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tradesilicon)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/8 "2001-10-01T16:34:37Z")
What’s stopping KIA from solving World Hunger? It’s a bit more Noble than Phone Solicitation, He/She should not limit Him/Her self.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/9 "2001-10-01T21:09:09Z")
Thank you, **trade**! I’ll remember that next time!
KIA is a he, BTW. Single, and, I think, stayin’ that way.
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### Author:  [@kellibelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellibelli)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/10 "2001-10-02T00:31:29Z")
The last guy I dated was like that… devil’s-fucking-advocate, all the bloody time!
I finally, through gritted teeth, told him that he was ‘challenging’ to talk to. Then I said, “Do you REALLY disagree with me about the color of the sky, or is this just a nasty habit?”
He stopped, but he was stupid, so I dumped him.
Kelli-who will die single with 20 cats-belli
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/11 "2001-10-04T04:14:06Z")
Update: I just found out that KIA is not, as I had thought, still collecting residuals from commercials he’s appeared in. They ran out late last year, so now he’s completely dependent on what he earns week to week, like the Rest of Us. So that would account for his being somewhat edgy.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ask-you-for-an-argument/84730/12 "2001-10-04T05:35:15Z")
Can somebody please coin a word or phrase for the kind of people who talk to you like Know It All in the OP? Cause I have family members who do this, and I would love to have a single word to describe them to other people (and you’re right, **Rilchiam** , it’s hard to describe the tone and just why this kind of exchange is oh so frustrating. It’s like you have to justify yourself to them or something, instead of them just commiserating with you.)