Of course: we are all diabolic to a degree. Incidentally, this I got when reading this yeah-but post; everybody is a yeah-but person to a degree.
Maybe it's time for me to be a bit more diabolic. This post, in particular, grated me for its stunning lack of charity. Charity, in the context of discussions, is to assume the best possible meaning from what people say and discuss from there. The reason is because communication is always imperfect and charity avoids projecting strawman viewpoints onto others. I'm not denying your lived experience - we all make our own judgements. Though denigrating the yeah-but is setting up an impossible standard for people to meet. Any nuanced point, including your own, can be rephrased into a yeah-but. That's why I said yeah-but is both a lens and a mirror. Such lenses are useful for finding where to explore further with people because usually, I find that apparent hypocrisy is actually a sophistication and I'm missing knowledge of an important part of their value system. It's also a mirror because you too cannot, except by willful ignorance, escape your own yeah-buts. Which is why I suggest a bit more charity for both self and others. At least it'll make for a more enjoyable evening and it might even change a mind or two.
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