Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
But any effort to push back against his worst excesses in terms of public opinion will be completely undermined if everyone resorts to this kind of false equivalence.
Save your ammunition for when it really counts, because sadly, you're going to need it.
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I reject that idea entirely. It's actually perfectly fine if every argument isn't completely logically sound or doesn't follow the formal rules of argument and debate. Those rules don't make a whole lot of difference outside of academics. Not every false equivalency is the same, not every one is detrimental to the state of the world.
Normal people can understand the meaning of a point without getting bogged down in the minutiae all the time because that's how regular people hold conversations. Look at what made Trump successful despite his faults: straight talk, kept simple. Regular people, not academics, made the difference in getting him elected. I think taking an overly careful and academic approach in dealing with Trump and politics in general has been a huge problem, and continuing to forget how people
actually interact is just going to further alienate people that make a difference. Treat places like this like the pub with some friends (and enemies!) then I think you have a lot of success, and we all have fun. Treat it like a university classroom and I think it's incredible ineffective. So is true with life.
I know that the more I hear about formal logic, fallacies, and the way I 'ought' to argue the more I lean towards rejecting anything those people are saying, because it rarely addresses the point. You can easily see how people who were tired of being called racist, sexist, homophobic, because they didn't know 'the rules' even though they felt like good people leaned towards rejecting anything their accusers stood for.
And don't you worry, we all have loooooooots of ammunition for Trump. Even when he abolishes term limits and permanently installs himself as Lord Trump of America for the next 20 years. We won't run out of false equivalencies any time soon.