I’ve seen this before, but I can’t find it now. It was a talk about how if you want to argue with someone, don’t use insults. I think it was by a guy who’s from the Skeptic Society or a well-known atheist.
No idea of date it was posted, it’s been a couple of years (I think) since I saw it.
Was the presenter a man or a woman?
It can be Elizabeth Lesser: Take “the Other” to Lunch
A nice talk about not reaching for insults and the concept of ubuntu, “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity” She came from an Atheist family and she became a proud “I know nothing” agnostic.
It was a male speaker - I remember him making the point “Have you ever changed your mind because someone insulted you?”
Need more info, Zyada.
I’ve watched a bunch of great videos now, but none of them are what you’re looking for.
How long ago did you see this?
Was the speaker American? British? German? Swedish? Mexican? Any identifiable accent?
You’re sure the main topic was arguing without insults?
Was it a TED talk or a TEDx talk? (I’ve searched for both, but no luck either way.)
Did you watch it on YouTube directly or at the TED site?
More details means I can better direct my google-fu.
I always listen to TEDs talks, but can not remember. I will search for hope to find it for you.
Michael Shermer: Why people believe weird things | TED Talk Maybe you mean this talk?
Could it be Phil Plait’s “Don’t be a Dick” talk at Tam? (Google it. I can’t so easily atm)
You might try playing with TEDinator. It’s a TED talk downloader for Windows that enables offline viewing. The useful part for this is it downloads metadata and lets you search against the titles. Reviewing a whole title might help.
It’s been a while since I used it and don’t currently have it installed. I don’t know if it still works. YMMV. Be wary if it ask if you want to play global thermonuclear war.
That was it, thanks!
I have someone that needs to see this.
Holy crap, thanks for this. I have a trans-Pacific flight coming up (12-13 hrs each way); the seatback entertainment system typically has a handful of TED talks available, but I typically burn through them in the first couple of hours, and this will let me preload my Surface with a whole mess of them.
I wish he still hung out on the SDMB.
After that talk? I’m not sure he’d enjoy it. Sure, most people are fine, but those loud few…
Anyways, since comments are disabled, I wanted to add that he articulated the same reason I think going after religion entirely is bad. Yes, you may believe all religion is horrible, but you’re attacking someone’s core identity if you do that.
Go for the truth, and let them possibly reason themselves out of their religion. and if they decide not to apply it to religion, but do to everything else, it’s still a huge improvement.