After listening to the new episode of Knowledge Fight, here are lessons to be learned from Alex Jones’s style of “debate”…

  1. Yelling all the time and never stop talking

  2. Gish Gallop (spewing lots of talking points so nobody can fact-check or counter)

  3. Name calling by pretending to misremember your opponent’s name (eg, calling Destiny “Ding Dong” and claims that he forgets his name)

  4. Generalisation your opponents’ talking point to make them look bad (eg, twisting your opponent’s statement that Ashley wasn’t get beaten in the head by saying that “HE THINKS Ashley didn’t get shot!”)

  5. Whataboustism

  6. Distracting by bringing other topics instead (talking about vaccines or Trump ballot during the Jan 6 debate)

Any other tactics you guys see here?

  • mozz
    8•11 months ago

    This is accurate, but it’s missing the central point. It’s not about logic. It’s a purely emotional way of interacting, more akin to two teenagers trading insults in a cafeteria, or two people threatening each other getting ready to fight.

    The point is to posture and insult. Cutting off your opponent before they can make a point, giving them insulting nicknames and hearing them “stick to the facts” instead of punching you when you say the insult or something… that indicates that you’re the dominant party. That’s what the listeners are looking for. They genuinely don’t care who’s right or wrong. It’s actually more of a badge of pride if one party can be wrong, but bully the other person into still looking like the loser in the exchange (based on tone of voice and presentation and the flow of the conversation), because it gives them someone to look up to and emulate.

    That’s why so many of them love Trump. He’s a D student who can (in their minds) get away with being a POS, and bullying people smarter than him, and they admire and respect him for that.