One of the tricks I've been using for years, is I never answer to a hypothetical situation.

The wonderful part is, it's easy to deny answering a question that's purely hypothetical. You simply say, I'm not answering that.

The justification is also easy. People don't live in hypothetical situations. We have enough actual circumstances in our life that actually pertain to the difficulties, the joys, and every other experience that we go through, that if somebody has a real question they can draw from their own life experience.

The last nice benefit is, this keeps all perceived paradoxes out of the conversation.

Paradox never exists in reality. And only exists in the minds of the person presenting something as a paradox. One simple way to define what a paradox actually is, is that it is flawed logical thinking. But the flaw in the logic isn't obvious. It's there somewhere. Because without the flaw in the logic the paradox disappears. Which is why you never see a paradox existing in reality.

Reality trump's logic every time.