sage advice
John Whittet offers up some good advice for debating online. The post is specific to Newsvine, but has universal appeal….
1. Ignore all points.
You can’t be bothered to read a well-formed argument, so don’t! Pick up one or two words and run with them. Ignore all subsequent comments or repeat the contextual selection. (Required Reading: Straw Man and Slippery Slope.)
2. Step through at least three degrees of separation
You want your arguments to follow this general pattern: “A implies B implies C implies ‘sweeping statement’—QED.” Bonus points if you apply HTA#8 here: call pro-lifers “religious zealots” and pro-choicers “pro-abortion”. Example: Barack Obama knows Bill Ayers, and Bill Ayers is a terrorist, so therefore Obama is a Muslim1 terrorist.
3. Attack the messenger
Do you know the old adage, “Don’t shoot the messenger?” Fuck that; shoot him. Example: The Wall Street Journal? That’s just a front for Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing shadow organization!” (Other fun examples include Fox News and The Huffington Post.)
Read the whole thing….