Revisionist Arguments

[jackfaire]

My mom has never lost an argument in her life. It's amazing really it's like she's always on the winning side of every argument no matter how good the other side's facts and reasons are it's almost like she has a time machine and can....gasp.

Yeah no my mom doesn't have a time machine she just revises history in her own head.

A few weeks ago my mom was watching a show on the 2nd World War. As I was walking into the kitchen the show said, "The United States of America single handedly won World War 2" I am not paraphrasing that was the line as said by the narrator. I took exception to it and my mom argued with me. I pointed out how our history books so severely ignore anything that didn't directly involve us that my high school history book didn't even mention the holocaust and the first blow in WW 2 was the attack on Pearl Harbor. The book didn't say that but it didn't cover any of the stuff leading up to it. The other stuff was taught to us because I had a history teacher who cared about historical accuracy.

My mom argued that essentially we did all of the heavy lifting in WW2 and that while she wouldn't agree with the statement she feels it's pretty damn close to the truth.

Today I mentioned being shocked to find out that unlike our history books which credit Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and others with civil rights movements that some British history books will apparently write out the people who fought for equal rights and credit the Government those people fought against with giving those rights to the people because "It's just time those people had those rights'

My mom's response was "Big shock since you said they deny we had anything to do with WW2"

So in her mind our latest argument wasn't about me saying "We weren't alone in fighting" and her saying "Yes we were" It was me saying "We didn't do anything" and her saying "We helped"

So uhm she won the argument? Basically if she realizes she's wrong she alters the argument to position herself as being right.

"Mom the sky is blue" "It's black" (in the middle of the day)

"I can't believe you were arguing the sky was blue in the middle of the night"

Me staring in wide eyed wonder at her sheer capacity for self delusion.

[wolfie]

A few weeks ago my mom was watching a show on the 2nd World War. As I was walking into the kitchen the show said, "The United States of America single handedly won World War 2" I am not paraphrasing that was the line as said by the narrator. (snip)

My mom argued that essentially we did all of the heavy lifting in WW2 and that while she wouldn't agree with the statement she feels it's pretty damn close to the truth.

U.S. did all the heavy lifting? I seem to recall that the Dambusters (taking out the power for armaments factories is a big deal) were Lancasters, not B-17s or B-24s. Also, the American bombers didn't have enough range to fly out of bases in Newfoundland. Fortunately, Sea Lion was canceled - and it happened before the U.S. joined the war. Lots of Hurricanes and Spitfires in the Battle of Britain, no Mustangs or Thunderbolts.

[jackfaire]

U.S. did all the heavy lifting?

I know my point in that original argument with my mom was that the US was one of many countries and not the world's savior that we proceeded to paint ourselves as.

The OP wasn't about that as much it is about people that will change what they were arguing later so that they were always right in the previous argument.