Martial Arts: Defending your style
Some people are fanatical when defending their style of martial art against those who would dare criticize the style using facts, science, empirical evidence, logic, and reasoning. Here are some methods used by martial art fanatics in response to criticisms about their styles.
Any criticism is a result of bias
Once you have chosen a style of martial art, you are bound by honor to defend it to the last and to refuse to entertain the opinions of any would-be detractors. The easiest way to deal with any critique of your style is to attribute it to bias on the part of the critic. Of course your defense of your style has nothing to do with bias, your style is the best because it is the best.
Best defense is to attack
Refuse to engage in intellectual debate. This ensures you can never be proven wrong. Never defend your position with a well-reasoned response, just attack, and attack, and attack, until your opponent gives up trying to reason with you. Anything is fair game, from insulting the writer of any criticism, to mocking other styles of martial arts, even if they have nothing to do with the debate. In fact, bringing in such straw men is beneficial to your cause, since it makes your argument even less coherent and thus less possible to counter. If somebody asks you a question or calls you out on one of your comments, just ignore them. Do not attempt to answer any questions, because that may betray the fact that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Consider yourself an unpaid spokesperson
With fanaticism comes great responsibility. Not only are you fighting for your cause, you are also looking for new recruits. While psychotically attacking every criticism, you should also try to convince other people that they should study your style of martial art. Remember, the more people you convince to study your style of martial art, the more validated as a person you become. Even though your martial arts school is not paying you to recruit new students, you should do all you can to make the owners more and more money.
Ignore positive comments, focus only on the negative
Make sure to never respond to any positive comments that critics have to say about your style of martial art; if you do, it becomes much more difficult to accuse them of being biased against your style. If you pretend they have never said anything good about your style, then you may make such hyperbolic claims such as "everything you write is anti-MMA.” Of course, your critics will probably write good things about your style that contradict your hyperbole, so just remember to ignore what they say and keep attacking.
Call critics fanatical
If you accuse a critic of being a fanatic of a style of martial art before the critic accuses you of being a one, you may put the critic on the defense and divert the critic from his or her criticisms of your style. As stated above, the best defense is to attack.
Call criticisms “old news”
A great way to deal with criticism is to state that all negative points are "old news" that nobody cares about anymore. When a particular negative point has been around for a while, it loses some of it punch. Therefore, anyone pointing out valid reasons why your beloved style is not perfect may be instantly invalidated by calling the criticisms “old fashioned” and making the critic seem out of touch with the modern way of doing things. Hit and run
As a fanatic, you cannot afford to become engaged in a protracted argument because your lack of intelligence may be exposed. Therefore, you should specialize in hit and run tactics; attack, but then run away and do not respond to logical arguments. Spread your attacks over multiple threads rather than a single ongoing debate. Your opposition will not be able find and respond to all your attacks. Remember, if you get proven wrong in one debate, you can always make the exact same point in another. Be similar to the Hydra; for every attack that gets cut down, you create another somewhere else.
Justify stupidity
Even though your style of martial art is perfect, sometimes the master or organization may make a bad decision or a stupid statement. When this occurs, stand up for them, and act as if what they said or did is the greatest thing ever. Remember, your master and style of martial art is perfect, therefore everything they do is right.
Be melodramatic to make your point
If you want to really make an impressive stand, erupt into a melodramatic rant and rave to make your point. If someone points out a flaw in your style of martial art, launch into rants about conspiracy theory and paranoia. Accuse critics of conspiring to degrade your martial art, as evidenced by other critics making the same criticisms.
Sources
- Sterling, J. (2008) Ten golden rules of videogame fanboyism. Available online: www.destructoid.com.
