Knowing their verbal jousting techniques will allow you to defend yourself from their odious agenda.
1. They use loaded and insulting words.
The use of words like ‘racist, sexist, transphobe and islamophobe’ are designed to discredit those they are directed at in the hope of provoking a defence as these are claims that can destroy reputations. Make no mistake that’s what their intention is.
In essence, they make the target ( that’s us) defend their ego rather than focus on the facts. A general rule of thumb is those who hurl the most insults have the most to hide. You can beat them by laughing off their insults, don’t provide an emotional reaction and refocus them on the facts.
2. The Emotional Appeal
Most people think and act out of emotion, that’s why presenting contentious points as emotional arguments frames opponents as uncaring. One example is the anti-hunger movement. It immediately implies anyone disagreeing with their cause supports hunger. The same with anti-poverty statements.
In politics it’s the same with the wet Liberals who call themselves ‘moderates’. It immediately implies those who disagree with them are extremists.
To counter this tactic, you need to hit them with facts about the subject matter and then highlight the moral aspect of your argument. Of course, if dealing with someone even reasonably rational and logical, you can empathise with their concerns but then explain the facts and why a different approach is needed.
3. Reframing Behaviour
Those who attribute bad motives to others are reframing behaviour to suit themselves. Leftists do it all the time. It was beautifully summed up by economist Thomas Sowell.
It is amazing how many people think they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.
If you are being verbally attacked (for any reason) , seek to reframe the behaviour of your aggressor but strengthen your case with suitable facts. It will trigger an emotional and a logical response that is very difficult to counter.
4. Lump Everyone in Together.
Lefties are good at labelling and stigmatising groups and tossing their opponents into them. for example: if you are against SSM you are a homophobe or if you support tradition you have ‘white privilege’ and so forth. You may hear them talk of of white nationalists but never of black nationalists…not because they don’t exist but because it doesn’t suit the leftist narrative.
Lefties love negative generalisations about their opponents.
If they try and lump you in to a group, you have three choices. Defend, condone or don’t challenge. That will depend on your views of the subject but the key is to not allow yourself to be grouped in with something that doesn’t represent your values.
5. Influence
If you trust someone or some entity, then you will more readily accept what they tell you. That’s where the appeal to authority proves to be an effective influence technique. It used to be the mass media that shaped opinion ( which is still effective) but is increasingly been driven by narrowcast messaging.
When you hear someone claim to respect the science or cite some global body to support their arguments, they are hoping you don’t know enough to question that authority. That happened this week when the lightweight Tanya Plibersek claimed to ‘listen to the science’ about coronavirus treatments in this hallway confrontation with Craig Kelly MP.
Plibersek had no facts or real knowledge to back up her statements. Kelly did. He won this exchange but the media portrayed it as a victory Plibersek. Although few trust them, the reach of the media and the naïveté of the people, almost always ensures the narrative they put forward prevails…at least temporarily.
The key here is to have the facts at your disposal. Be prepared to counter every false claim when necessary and demonstrate your opponent doesn’t really know what they are talking about.
The left have intentionally commandeered language to make debating them in a rational and logical manner almost impossible. Knowing their techniques means we can be prepared to counter them at every available turn.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
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