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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Ever hear anyone to tell you to “stake your claim”? [Barbecue cooking steaks]

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Or maybe they told you to… “claim your steak?"

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Which is smart when a half dozen people are hovering over the grill…

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…but…what is a claim, anyway? [Dino discussing what a claim is]

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When we make a claim, we're saying something's true.

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We’re planting a flag, saying, "Hey, this thing I'm saying? It’s totally the truth. [Astronaut planting a flag on the moon]

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Also, don’t ask why I carry this flag around with me everywhere. We all have our quirks.”

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A counterclaim is a way to weaken that claim, or to block it. We can imagine that a claim

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and a counterclaim are kind of like a conversation between two people who disagree. [Man and woman at a debate on stage]

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If you’re not sure what that looks like, think back to last Thanksgiving. We’ll just

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see if grandma ever gets invited back.

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Claims and counterclaims can be found in oral arguments… or in writing.

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Since counterclaims are all about weakening claims, it's not too surprising that they [Woman has pie thrown at her face]

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come up in arguments.

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In fact, if you ever find yourself in the thick of an argument, one effective trick

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is to figure out what your opponent's counterclaims might be

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and counter those counterclaims before they even come up. [Man counters a karate move]

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It’s like a chess match being played by your brain.

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Look, ma. No hands. When arguing, there are even some handy formulas [Coop discussing formulas]

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you can use, like:

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"While it is true that X, actually Y…" or "P doesn't, in fact, disprove Q…"

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Pretty much anything that sounds like “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, but what I say is

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more important.”

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Or how your big sister talks to you… all the time. [Big sister walks out of room]

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We can see how this might work in the hotly contested mayoral race

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between Mary's little lamb and Mayor Watkins.

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Mary knows that Watkins will probably bring up the fact that no lamb has ever been mayor.

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Which is true, as far as we know.

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So it'd be smart if she treats that as a claim, and comes up with a counterclaim to block

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the mayor's claim. Something like…

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"While it’s true that a lamb has never been the mayor of our town, we need to recognize [Example of a claim in writing]

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that just because something's new doesn't mean that it's baaaad. Ahem. There weren't

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any airplanes in 1900, but today, they're flying all over the place, and we can get

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from New York to California while taking a nap.

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And that’s pretty cool…just like it would be pretty dang cool to have a lamb for a mayor.

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Peace out.” If you can master counterclaims…you just

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might make history. [Picture of lamb hung on wall]

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Sorry, Ex-Mayor Watkins. Not everybody’s fleece can be as white as snow.

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