I got into an argument with someone today and I used the phrase “It’s like talking to a deaf person”, and the response was “so you think I’m deaf?” and the situation reached the point that they insisted I had meant they were literally deaf. Neither of us is hearing impaired, we’re both physically normal. The other person has asked that I ask 100 people the same question to see if an average sample of people would understand the phrase to mean that they are deaf or not, so I’m posting this.

The context was that I had made a point, and they responded by completely ignoring my point and asking questions as if I had not made it, without responding to my point despite me repeatedly trying to make it and get a response. Hence my comment “like talking to a deaf person”.

I intended the comment as a metaphor (or simile), that someone ignoring a statement is something a deaf person might do, and this behaviour was being demonstrated here, so the two situations are analogous. The response was that logically “A = B = C therefore you are saying I’m deaf”, which was not my logical intention but my argument is denied by the other party.

This sounds ridiculous to me but who knows, maybe some people will take their side and think I literally meant they were deaf. I can’t close the argument as they refuse to accept my logic and want to see a popular vote.

I can’t see a way to ask a multiple choice question and get a simple numerical tally of votes, if that’s possible I’ll edit this to make answering a more simple binary choice.

Any agreements/disagreements?