In those days, I was still childish enough that I would try to explain the madness of their doctrines to them. In my own little circle, I talked until my tongue was sore and my throat was hoarse and thought I must succeed in convincing them how destructive their Marxist madness was, but the very opposite was the result. Growing insight into the destructive effect of Social Democratic theories only increased these people's determination. The more disputes I had with them, the better acquainted I became with their arguing techniques. First, they would count on the stupidity of their adversaries, and then, if there was no way out, they pretended to be stupid themselves. If all else failed, they claimed they did not understand, or, being challenged, they would instantly jump to another subject and talk about obvious truths. If these were agreed on, they immediately applied them to entirely different matters. When they were caught off guard, they would avoid the conversation and claim they had no knowledge or understanding of the issue.