Sunday, February 14, 2010

More Plinking

I know that I've just been taking a lot of pot shots lately, but you'll forgive my flagging enthusiasm for sweeping back the ocean. The stupid has always been with us and there's nothing we can do but sit back and smirk, trying hard to forget the misery that our selfish and idiotic tendencies bestow upon the less fortunate.

Anyway, in another post whose end I have no inclination of reaching, Megan starts out strong with the stupid, self-defeating debating tactics of which she's so fond.

Step 1) Decry the rhetoric of your opponents without citing any of them:

For some reason, everyone I've seen who has so far responded to my piece on mortality and the lack of insurance has pulled exactly the same debater's trick: they restate my argument in maximalist form, and then proceed to really kick the hell out of the strawman they've created.
Step 2) Spew a bunch of nonsense and evocative language meant to depict your opponents as absurd, wailing harpies who've lost all reason:
I mean, there's hay and shreds of fabric on the ceiling of offices three floors above them. Button eyes flying off so fast that several have achieved escape velocity. Crows shrieking in terror as far away as Fresno and Marseilles. It's a stunning display of . . . something.
And thus concludes another opening paragraph to another post I won't read.

I suppose you could accuse me of some form of argumentative fallacy here, but that's just something you'd do because you're a fucking asshole.

Tu Quoque!

2 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

She made an argument in that "piece"?
~

Unknown said...

Boy, that call for civility sure lasted, didn't it.