This was sent from a friend of mind.
Well, that certainly explains a lot.
And I just thought Romney wanted a pony. Well, they do have one thing in
common, ponies and Gish Gallops: BS.
And I knew what tactic Romney was
using in the debate, but did not know they had a name for it...
Romney's fast speaking pace and
ticked off numbered "factual" points are classic indicators.
The debate tactic is called the
"Gish Gallop"
the clean website is: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gish_Gallop
But I like the Urban Dictionary
better, it calls BS by its name:
Named for
the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop
involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span that your opponent
can’t address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop
will often have one or more 'talking points' that has a tiny core of truth to
it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order
to explain that, yes, it's not totally false but the Galloper is
distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop
generally has two traits.
1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bullshit and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.
2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bullshit. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bullshit, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bullshit into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.
1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bullshit and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.
2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bullshit. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bullshit, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bullshit into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.
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