STUDY: Being the most offended does not make you the most correct

MONTRÉAL, QC—McGill sociologist Dr. Sam Marchant has spent the past five years observing the impact that unnecessary online arguing (UOA) is having on our world. This week she released the shocking conclusions of her research.

Marchant's most notable finding is that being the most offended does not make you the most correct.

"I'm as surprised as anyone," Marchant says. "Like everyone else, I'd assumed that whoever is yelling the loudest is also the smartest and most rational person."

"It's a quietly loud world we live in," she explains. "The literal volume is relatively low, but the constant noise coming from the devices in our hands is unending and all-consuming."

"Watch any Terminator movie," Marchant adds. "Robots raining down endless hellfire? They've got nothing on technology that lets you anonymously bicker with strangers all day."

Marchant also notes that UOA directly contrasts people's public behavior.

"If you were in a bar and you observed someone screaming at another person who was calm and trying to speak his mind respectfully, you would assume the screaming person was a lunatic."

Marchant believes that an argument formula has emerged that actively prevents helpful discourse.

"Someone gets offended about ageism, or a horse, or a single raindrop. Two sides disagree. Rather than seeking a middle ground, they move in opposite directions until they have to yell because how else can they hear each other?"

Marchant explains that a general defensive mentality also contributes to the problem – and that she herself has fallen victim to this behaviour as recently as last week when she exchanged a series of heated tweets with an adolescent boy about the hidden misogyny in Pokémon.

"I didn't want him to learn – I wanted to win," she explains. "And that's how I ended up with my caps-lock key on, telling a total stranger that he was a 'giant toiletwang' at 4:12 am on a Tuesday."