Kurt Schlichter/TownHall: I don’t argue with liberals for several reasons, including the fact that as a trial lawyer I argue for a living so I expect to be paid for it, and the fact that I really don’t care what liberals think enough to try to change their minds. When I deal with them on Twitter and other social media, I just want to defeat them as I demonstrate to fellow conservatives that it’s okay to fight back. But some of you do argue with liberals, though I don’t get why. See, liberals don’t argue either, mostly because they know no one else will buy the ideological garbage they are peddling. Instead of a reasoned position, they will inevitably offer a cheesy simulacrum of an argument that consists of the kind of hack ploys that would embarrass a shyster in a polyester leisure suit doing shaky rear-ender cases out of his 1992 Corolla parked down by the dump because he can’t afford a van down by the river.
Liberals don’t argue in good faith because they can’t, and Normal people who don’t argue every day as part of their job often don’t see the argument grifts they are being side-swiped by. Normals are direct and honest folks, and often (though much less frequently than they used to since Normals began to get militant) they labor under the illusion that debates with liberals involve honest exchanges of facts and evidence that can lead people to change their minds. No. Liberal “argument’ is a bludgeon designed to beat you into submission with distraction and deception.
Let’s look as some of liberals’ favorite cheats, and how you can defeat them.
The Cheat: “Jesusplain Those Rubes!”
When in doubt, play the messiah card! It’s always a pleasure to have some atheist hipster explain to you how Christ was a socialist SJW who was ultra-open-minded about what bathroom people should use and who demands you give the government money so it can hand your cash over to deadbeats. I often wonder if this gambit ever works, if anyone ever thinks, “Gosh, I guess if @ImpeachTrumpHillarysHot says my Savior hates AR15s, then I better disarm myself in the face of liberal-enabled crime and liberal-supported tyranny.”
How to Beat It: You could explain the whole Christianity thing, but it’s easier to just tell the liberals to go pound sand.
The Cheat: “You are [Something Terrible] for thinking that!”
Racist, sexist, homophobic, Nickelback-loving – there’s not a slur or slander you won’t be called for standing up for the principles that made America great. But somewhere along the line, certain conservatives – let’s just say they tend to try to sell you cruises where you can mingle with the who’s who of the Fredocon elite – started trying to please liberals, seeking to prove that, “No, I’m not that horrible thing you just called me!” Big mistake. Of course, that never works. Liberals themselves are all of the things they call you, and they know it, and they don’t care, because their caring and concern and compassion for all the groups they accuse you of oppressing is just a pose. Watch how quickly they go from claiming you hate gay people to accusing you of being gay because calling a conservative gay is an insult that is supposed to blow our button-down bourgeois minds.
How to Beat It: You could deny the charges, but it’s easier to just tell the liberals to go pound sand.
The Cheat: “We are better than that!” MORE
“simulacrum” — How did this word escape my tool box? Learning something new every single day.
(There was another great word used recently in the politics blogosphere last week. Anyone out there catch what it was? MJA? Anybody? I can’t remember it now and I wish I could.)
I’m with Schlichter on this. Arguing with hard core progs is not just a colossal waste of time, I think it takes months off your natural lifespan. I’m surprised CA hasn’t regulated themselves as a carcinogen.
(I didn’t realize that Schlichter was a card-carrying anti-Trump guy early on. Glad he listens to rational arguments himself.)
Anybody feel like a little Credence this morning –
Oh, it swung outta the trees just a little south of Moline
Jody fell out of his tractor, couldn’t believe what he seen
Laid on the ground and shook, fearin’ for his life
Then he ran all the way to town screamin’ it came out of the woods!
@Abigail.
Was it “coprophagia”? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprophagia
It’s an under used word when speaking to or about liberals.
Abigail, I did the same thing– rushed to my dictionary to look up the meaning of the word “simulacrum”. How did I not know this word existed?
Thanks P Henry,,, Now I will just skip breakfast…
The point of the argument is to assist the middle to come to some conclusion.
The middle, for the most part, are either monumentally befuddled or too tied up in their own lives to have thought about things (thus; the power of slogans and “sound bites”).
Other than the convincing the middle, there’s no point.
No one, for instance, will EVER convince me that socialism, totalitarianism, and nihilism are good for humanity, much less for Western Civilization.
No one will EVER convince me that Slavery is superior to Liberty.
No one will EVER convince me that you can kill people “for their own good.”
The best you can hope for, in any argument, is to cut through the Bullshit and expose the underlying facts – if you’ve done that, you’ve “won” the argument.
izlamo delenda est …
@Rat Fink:
“it came out of the SKY”
It was pointed out long ago but THE most effective tactic against leftist trolls (a redundancy if ever there was one) is to deprive them of two things: (a) RESPECT, by ridiculing their invalid premises which you MUST* refuse to engage them on, and (b) ATTENTION, by shutting them out once you’ve done (a). (b) may take some self-control when they try hard to bait you but if you stick to your resolve, it works like a charm.
In short, treat them like unruly children. Spank them and shut them in their room.
*accepting an invalid premise validates it and lends strength to the person employing it. Destroy the premise FIRST and refuse to proceed upon it.
MJA
Great work on the teeth, brings out her true self.
That necklace is butt ugly without any help.
Telling them to pound sand is fine for the stupider, more juvenile and intractable trolls who are an utter waste of time. With the more skilled (and often paid) ones, that won’t work as well; they’ll try to turn it around on you. They can be defeated to the satisfaction of any objective observer, and that’s how the truth about their Alinsky tactics is spread. The only way, in fact — for people to see it defeated at the premise.
What works for me on vacuous liberals is open derision.
Their puerile and infantile opinions are often worthless therefor I have no time for them.
If they get in my face (like some ass-wipe that didn’t like my MAGA hat) I give them the back of my hand, Matt Dillon style
That being said, I do not only wish to hear conservative opinions.
Lazlo keeps an open mind, just in case I really don’t know everything
But there are so few Liberals that are not raving Left-o-communist-o-fascists that will not interrupt, name call, and get all butt hurt when disagreed with, and turn every conversation into a tirade.
Like Tim says, if I ever get into an online argument it isn’t with the expectation of changing the minds of those I am arguing with but to provide information to the ‘silent majority’ who are reading but not commenting.
I was beginning to sense a pattern in Mr. Schlichter’s article.
It’s best to just ‘one and done’ with a Prog, leave them hangin’.
Hard to have a battle of wits, with an unarmed Prog.
simulacrum, I love new words.
I was called names by a liberal bitch I used to know, and my reply was “yeah, I’m everything you say about me, as much as you are everything I say about you”.