Good Afternoon and welcome to a master class in debating technique from Sir_Brizz.
Watch closely class and you will learn some useful techniques for winning an argument no matter the subject.
Today's lesson will deal with the following techniques:
- The Strawman Argument
- Ad Hominem attacks against groups
- Using denotation and connotation to confound opponents
This is an example of creating a Strawman argument.
The original charge was that Sir Brizz was attacking the
"messengers" (note the plural with no individual identified) but Sir Brizz responds as though he had been charged with attacking an individual.
"who" could allow for a plural but will be read by most as relating to an individual (utilising the difference between denotation and connotation). And, of course, Sir Brizz is innocent of attacking an individual. Trouble with that is that no one accused him of attacking an individual.
Verdict: Not Guilty of a charge that was never made. Sir Brizz manages to appear as the maligned party
This leads on to a favoured Sir Brizz tactic, the
Ad Hominem attack on groups rather than individuals. This is a particularly cunning technique as it often achieves the objective of an
Ad Hominem attack (to discount the argument or distract attention from the argument of another because of some unrelated attribute of that other) whilst avoiding singling out an individual who might be motivated to respond.
The odds are that most of the "Everyone"s will not be sufficiently motivated to respond whilst their argument is demonised. It is also quite difficult to respond as an individual to an attack that has been made on a group - more insulation from the prospect of an effective response by the opposition.
That's it for today class.
Now remember to do your reading for tomorrow!
Chapter 8 - How to nitpick over minor details or irrelevancies in order to divert attention from the weakness of your position.
And get plenty of sleep and eat your greens - stamina and unrelenting persistence are essential attributes if you want to win. And look at the muscles on Sir Brizz - a marathon runner amongst debaters.
And the really sad thing is that Sir_Brizz doesn't need to do this. He is a formidable debater without the cheap debating club tricks (and quite fun to engage in a discussion). Somewhere in the last six months or so he seems to have lost the distinction between winning and winning the argument. He's quite capable of winning an argument but seems these days simply to prefer winning.
I said I think we've been lucky in the past that the Linux installer has come bundled with the games, I don't think that is all that crazy of an idea, personally. I also mentioned the differences in licensing issues between older games and this game.
muddled.
