For the Sake of Argument – IOTW Report

For the Sake of Argument

WFB:
We the people were recently treated to a masterclass in political debate courtesy of the House Oversight Committee. “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) told Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas). Rising to the challenge of her rival, and demonstrating a truly remarkable talent for alliteration, Crockett observed that her intellectual adversary had committed the “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” fallacy (or in Cicero’s original Latin: candida, mala constructa, corpus butch).

Okay, so maybe this embarrassing back-and-forth wasn’t a great moment in argumentation. Unfortunately, it seems emblematic of, not an exception to, how the members of our political class address each other.

It’s not only politicians we need to worry about. As Ward Farnsworth explains in Classical English Argument, “most people learn about argument from social media, a kind of virtual campus on which the subject is badly taught indeed.” Farnsworth, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and its former dean, presents his book as “an alternative school,” a superior place to learn about the craft of argument than the cesspool of the internet and, though he doesn’t say so, congressional hearing rooms and presidential lecterns. more

16 Comments on For the Sake of Argument

  1. “Okay, so maybe this embarrassing back-and-forth wasn’t a great moment”.i disagree, I think we need more of it. I can’t stand to these two faced bastards refer to “my friends across the isle”! They are not your friends they are your enemy. I’m in favor of fistfights on the house and senate floor. That will clarify real quickly who your friends are and who are not. That would clear up some misconceptions of the voters as well.

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  2. ^^^^^^

    Couldn’t agree more. I’m going to publish a book titles, Might makes Right. All 300 pages will be blank. Self explanatory and the lefts about to learn this.

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  3. Let’s keep in mind the difference between argument and insult. Yes, while it is certainly possible to be argumentatively insulting or insultingly argumentative, these are two distinct and valuable skills that are part of the “how to have other people do what you want them to do” tool box. That tool box also contains physical weaponry, subterfuge, deceit, flattery, and threats. A properly educated man needs to be proficient in all of these.

    @Brad — Please make sure the publisher produces your book with tool steel covers and bloodstain resistant paper. You never know! 🙄

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  4. Ignorant, DEI, less-than-educated, liberal dumb-fuck, unfairly appointed, non-deserving low-lives are the very first to be ‘offended’, unappreciated, rejected victims of reality.

    And they still fail to grasp the facts.

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  5. To argue with some one in ancient Latin, with lots of ancient Latin insults thrown in, would be ultimate political theatre.

    Now I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout ancient Latin, but it would be fun to learn, especially the insults, like Cicero’s, above. Maybe one of the ancient insults is, or similar to, “Yo Mama”.

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  6. Uncle Al
    I can’t remember the exact number, but I read an article, I think by GOA, that stated the number of gun owners and hunters that were not registered to vote. It was substantial. What are these idiots reaction going to be when they show up to get their guns. Hopefully you’re understanding my point.

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  7. MTG and Crockett were not arguing. They were trading schoolyard insults, a/k/a dissing each other. Not the same thing at all.

    Also: arguing and fighting are not the same thing, either.

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  8. Uncle Al

    Much deeper than that and I totally disagree. MTG scares the living shit out of these people. Why, she posts jpegs of herself doing cleans with 185 lbs. Doing wide grip chins with weight strapped to her. Doing dead lift with 225. The black libtards would lose their wigs trying such foolishness. No I’m serious, MTG intimidates the hell out of the female black cock us.

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  9. The guy who wrote this article is expecting aristocrat gentlemen’s fair play “disagreements” that end in a handshake. The cultural discourse has become too critical for polite society elite back and forth. The intense political divide, good verse evil has prompted a more verbal “fight club” direct response.

    Civility has been ignored and even unheard of for a long time. In the past there was a society that expected a debate that presenting rational arguments allowing subtle personal insults. Not anymore.

    The cultural climate is reactionary. That’s not always a bad thing UNLESS it’s mixed with a lack of impulse control and/or wokeness – causing a socialism-lead dweeb to attempt to kill President Trump or a boat load of hoodrats destroying the cruise experience, fighting over lawn chairs, baby daddies and side eyed looks.

    All of a sudden, after the left advocated assassinating President Trump and it failed, “lowering the temperature” as a response to the backlash is their priority.
    The left always demands decorum when they’re getting handed the reaction they deserve. Not when the morons they created are being violent and disorderly, only when the right note thier hypocrisy.

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  10. Lowell and Brad,
    Unless you’re talking about tiny insect parasites, then it is “mites”.
    If you’re talking about show of force and power, then it’s “might”.
    (we report, you decide)

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