There\u2019s nothing more exciting than popping open your Twitter feed and seeing a big fat fight at the top. I\u2019m talking a full on 140-character Super-Smash-Bros-style angry-thumbs brawl: so many Tweets you can\u2019t even see them unless you click \u201c 27 more replies,\u201d so many arguers that much of each message\u2019s character allotment is consumed by the handles of other participants. A good old-fashioned slugfest you can only follow by scrolling all the way to the top.
\nThings get especially interesting when it\u2019s your friends out there on the front lines. Of course, if your friend is in a Twitter fight you probably know about it before you open the app. You\u2019ve probably been giving emotional support and suggesting comebacks all day.
\nIf you\u2019re in your buddy\u2019s corner like that, don\u2019t let him or her look like a fool — make \u2018em sound smart. The Prospector, ever in favor of intelligent dialogue between McClatchy students (no matter where it happens), would like to help. Here are two valuable bits of wisdom to offer your friend next time it\u2019s about to go down.
\nFirst: do some homework. Twitter debates are often political in nature, and though you can\u2019t really tell by listening to many of today\u2019s politicians, effective political arguments usually include actual reasoning and evidence. This is persuasive writing 101.
\nEven if you\u2019re not into the whole ethos-pathos-logos thing, the quickest of research can give you a leg up on your typical online ideological adversary — it literally takes 4 seconds to type \u201cwhy is Trump bad\u201d into Google (literally 4 seconds, I tried it). The formula is painfully easy to use. To shore up your knowledge of any position you\u2019re arguing, just type \u201cwhy [insert your contention here]\u201d and Google will do your work for you. Think vaccines cause polio? Punch in \u201cWhy vaccines cause polio\u201d and you\u2019re set.
\nHaving legit facts is especially important when arguing an unpopular position. Roasting your opponent is sure to be popular with the crowd — roast Tweets always get the most favorites — but that only works if everyone agrees with you already. You have to bring your A-game if you\u2019ve wedded yourself to a controversial idea. So definitely take the time to enter \u201cwhy braids aren\u2019t cultural appropriation\u201d into Google.
\nNow, a tip for the advanced Twitter beefer: take your time. Seriously. Take some time to craft an eloquent response, a funny-yet-sophisticated response, or one of those responses that\u2019s just a link to an article you read somewhere (\u201cJust read it,\u201d you type triumphantly). After all, isn\u2019t the point of the Twitter fight to win favor with the crowd? It\u2019s a 140 character rap battle.
\nBut that\u2019s all it is. Our final piece of advice? If you argue because you actually care about your ideas, don\u2019t do it on the TL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing more exciting than popping open your Twitter feed and seeing a big fat fight at the top. I\u2019m talking a full on 140-character Super-Smash-Bros-style angry-thumbs brawl: so many Tweets you can\u2019t even see them unless you click \u201c 27 more replies,\u201d so many arguers that much of each message\u2019s character allotment is consumed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[56],"tags":[58,45,59,57],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/twitter-fight.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd2KPv-b1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theckmprospector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}