bcspace wrote:Essentially, when someone resorts to those tactics, they're the ones who've walked away and I have no more need to tend the subject as it devolves into something for the peanut gallery to consume.
I think I've figured out what is going on here. Bspace is confusing a maxim used to predict the winner of a debate between equals with the actual rules of the debate used to determine the winner. It's like he heard the oft repeated saying
The cardinal rule of negotiation: he who speaks first loses.
and interpreted it as a literal rule, instead of a maxim intended to illustrate who most likely has the upper hand. So in his next negotiation, he simply waited for the other party to speak, and then promptly declared victory.
We might imagine a maxim in boxing that says the first fighter to lower his gloves or stick out his chin loses. Of course, this is meant to illustrate that lowering one's guard in such a way essentially hands the victory to the opponent, and a fighter would never do so unless he were simply to exhausted to carry on. Bspace, do you imagine that it is actually against the rules of the bout to lower ones gloves and stick out one's chin, and that a fighter immediately forfeits by doing so?
"Of course not," would be his reply, having learned that lesson during his last embarrassing negotiation. "As I said, by lowering his gloves and forgetting to keep his head down, my oponent is demonstrating that he is too beaten and exhausted to maintain proper form. Finishing him off at this point is a formality. I've won."
What bspace is forgetting is that there is another reason a fighter might lower his guard and break form. Upon finding himself in the ring with Mike Tyson, bspace observes that the first thing Tyson does at the opening bell is break form. He stands there with his gloves at his side, his head back, laughing. "Look at him," bscpace is thinking to himself. "He's already so exhausted and beaten down that he can't hold up his gloves, and I haven't even touched him yet. I've won!"