You may be right, dead right, as you speed along in your argument; but as far as changing another's mind is concerned, you will probably be just as futile as if you were wrong.I can't find it now, but I believe it was Scott Alexander who said that being right is the only extra tool the good guys have is being right. Both sides of every issue can us rhetorical tricks to persuade without good arguments. But only the truth has that extra power inherent in being right.
So if you're trying to decide which is healthier between two drinks, both spokespeople for those drinks have access to the same propagandandistic tricks to make you think their drink is healthier. But one of them is healthier. That doesn't mean you'll be right every time, but on average over all those drinks for all those consumers over many many years, the propaganda cancels out and only the side with the truth on their side has that extra edge that comes from being right.
This isn't what Dale Carnegie says in the first quote. He says that the truth doesn't matter a pinch in influencing people. So who's right?
I think I might be on the side of Carnegie's pessimism, but not because the truth doesn't matter at all. I think facts and sound argument is persuasive, for some more than others, but on average at least a little bit. But what isn't considered by either one of them is the truth's ability to distract from more effective rhetorical techniques. Going into an argument saying, "I'm just going to tell the truth," is probably bad advice but I think a lot of people do it. I've done it.
We're not arguing in a time vacuum. I had an English teacher who told us to use 50% logos, 40% pathos, and 10% ethos in our persuasive essays. But what if drop the logos completely? It's not like we have less, it only makes room for pathos and ethos to fill the void. Because the time we use on sound argument crowds out the time we use on more effective persuasion.
In other words the opportunity cost of telling the truth is rhetorical trickery. And that might be more important than the extra sliver of persuasion the truth gives you.
