When you are right doesn’t mean that the other person is wrong

A common misconception in arguments is that if you can prove yourself right then the other person is automatically wrong.

Nowadays if you switch on the news channels you will see people arguing to prove their point, even the news anchors are fighting to prove their point.

This thought process and the influence of social media platforms have resulted in political polarization. The world is diverged towards ideological extremes, which are far from the center.

This results in intolerance, and this Socio-Religious intolerance is increasing day by day. Leading social media platforms are playgrounds for everyone to argue, comment and contribute in any format. In this process they don’t care about facts, they just want to prove that they are right.

Have you ever thought why are they fighting so hard to prove their point?

This is because we always think of the result of arguments as binary ie. In a Binary world there are only two states, hence if you could prove yourself right then the other person has to be wrong.

Is that really so?

Let's have a look at the two answers we have :

The two answers in the binary world are “Right” and “Wrong”

What makes someone right/ when is someone right / what is the definition of being right?

The definition of “Right” according to Britannica is :

The meaning of right depends on whether you use the word before or after the noun

1. When it is used after a noun then the meaning of the word “Right” is “Morally or socially correct or acceptable”:

Eg: Stealing is not right

2. When it is used before the noun, then it means “you are agreeing to a fact or truth”

Eg:

a. The right answer is —

b. She was right about him not having a job.

The second one is more related to tangible augments which data, proofs, facts, etc can justify. So let's look at the first one:

It says right means “ Morally or socially correct or acceptable”

So the immediate next question will be who is defining morality/ what is socially right /acceptable for society. The answer is not that simple.