Most people try to win arguments by attacking the weakest version of their opponent’s position. They search for flaws, inconsistencies, and absurd implications. They build a straw man, a distorted caricature of the opposing view that is easy to knock down. This feels like winning. It is not. Your opponent knows you are misrepresenting their position. The audience can sense the dishonesty even if they cannot articulate exactly what is wrong. You win the immediate exchange through rhetorical trickery but lose credibility, fail to actually engage with the strongest form of the opposing argument, and most importantly, you do not...