An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition, and is not the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says.
The sketch turns on a customer paying for an argument and receiving contradiction, and the distinction it draws is the one most disputes need. Contradiction requires no position, commits the speaker to nothing and can be sustained indefinitely, which is why it is the default form of disagreement in public and why the demand to state a positive claim is so effective against it.
In practice
- A reviewer who objects to every option and endorses none has not participated in the decision.
- A debate in which neither side can state what would change their mind is an exchange of denials.