Devils Advocate

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I do this to my detriment...

Unfortunately I'm good at offending people, confusing them, or irritating them with this. Accused of "not getting women" when a lady friend pointed out how I always took her boyfriend's side when she told me a story of something that had happened. I didn't even like the guy! She came to me looking for someone to agree with her (and I try!), but I can't seem to help meself, lol.

I've been called argumentive many a time. I'm not going to argue with the stupidity of arguing with people that agree with me, it's just part of me. I can't get rid of it, even if I tried.

I'm not the sort of person who insists on arguing against people even if I agree with them.

I argue with people a lot, but it's usually when I genuinely disagree with them.

I see you're point. Just for the record, I hate arguing with people, but if someone (just for example) comes to me and says "so and so said/did this. I don't know what they were thinking they're so stupid" Then I might go into why I think they did and I think the way I go about it makes them think I secretly agree with the other person and not them because I didn't automatically stick up for them and tell them "oh yeah I'd be pissed too" or whatever. But like I said in other posts, I do sometimes piss people off without really meaning to or wanting to and so I know I have many things to learn in the social NT world.

I do this all the time and it's one of the reasons I am never lonely.

I do that too.

I'm not never lonely, though... Wish that were true, but it's not.

If you're never lonely, you must be a potted plant or a coma patient.

Again with the insults. Very Christian of you.

I have never felt lonely because I have myself.

That was intended as a joke. I should have added the emoticon.

If I argue, its because I disagree with a voiced point of view and I think it needs to be challenged. Arguing just to be arguing is not only useless, it's ridiculous and usually only makes trouble, and I wouldn't want trouble. Saying other than what one truly believes sounds to me too much like lying.

On the rare occasions when playing devil's advocate might be useful, I would let people know, verbally and concretely, ahead of time that I'm switching into that mode. It would sound like "Just to play devil's advocate for a moment here, what about this: ...?" That saves them the surprise and annoyacne of finding out that I'm not voicing what I really believe to be true. As for getting people to think, I have enough trouble managing my own thinking. I would rather leave others' thinking to them.

I should clarify-I argue the point-NOT against people.

By the way, there is a thing about arguing that's really annoying. I find the idea of "convincing" people to be repulsive to the max. It's probably because the use of emotion to sway, and also the assumption of low intelligence to even try.

I agree. Any kind of argument directed at the person rather than their words or beliefs is bullying or ad hominem (at the person).

I wish I felt that way.


Sorry, I worded that very poorly. I should have written "arguing with people", not "against people".


I also agree. I do argue a lot but I do not make personal attacks. (Doesn't mean they don't respond with them, of course.... )

I get very confused when people get personally offended just because I disagree with them.

Devil's advocate was originally a term in Roman Catholicism; it
referred to the canon lawyer who argued the case against the
canonization of a would-be saint. By extension of the sense, someone
who argues the case against a commonly held opinion can be called a
"devil's advocate." I sometimes play this role, but that is in order to
present an alternative that others may not have thought about.

Hm. Interesting. Yet another reason I'm probably not AS.

I'd like to point out that for me it's not "imagining" things spontaneously, rather taking all information given and forming/exploring numerous possible conclusions. Seeing what is "correct" and "not correct" is a little difficult in many areas, because of this...

Also, to me, it seems that people's opinions are usually valid, based on reason, or experience. Even if the opinions are NOT based on logic, I can understand where they come from, and appreciate their point of view, even if I totally disagree with it. They might be incorrect, but I can't know everything about a situation to make a judgement.

Also, taking the devil's advocate point of view is usually done in a mild way, for me anyway. What gets me in trouble is when I don't respond in a normal way to certain people's issues... I'm expected to go with the crowd, and I simply can't. Either that, or people get annoyed with it and assume I'm screwing around.

I took NeantHumain's post as a sarcastic one. Maybe it wasn't, but that was my impression.

It seemed to me that he actually was playing devil's advocate (in a playful/sarcastic way) by disagreeing with everyone else and saying that an aspie would never play devil's advocate.