Read the community sidebar before posting anything. All top-level comments (i.e. non-replies) in this thread must be questions. You can also make your own posts in this community if you have more complex questions.
I’d first ask them how they got to that conclusion. No doubt he holds some wealth but billions is way out there. Hell, the man earns around 22k dollars a year.
Remember, it’s not always up to you to refute bullshit. First, people have to back up their bullshit to do that.
Remember, it’s not always up to you to refute bullshit.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is correct in the context of talking to people about socialism. It’s not a formal debate; it’s persuasion and rhetoric. Pointing out that they didn’t source anything can help, but it’s rarely enough to get anyone to change their mind.
The bar is higher for us because we are swimming against the current of a century of anti-communist propaganda.
Asking sincerely “where did you hear that” can sometimes get people to realise that they are just repeating a myth though, it should never be “I bet you can’t source that :smuglord:” but instead a “let’s go through and examine this claim together”. People get defensive when they feel they or their ideas are being attacked, but framing it as a “let’s explore and learn together” has a lot more success than “You’re wrong about that.” which will almost always be interpreted negatively, treated as a personal attack.