What’s sad is that this actually works

The onion, as always, nails it:

Oh, No! It’s Making Well-Reasoned Arguments Backed With Facts! Run!

I…I think it’s finally over. Our reactionary emotional response seems to have stopped it dead in its tracks. If I’m right, all we have to do now is smugly reiterate our half-formed thesis and–oh, no! For the love of God, no! It’s thoughtfully mulling things over!

Run! Run! It’s making reasonable, fact-based arguments!

Quickly! Hide behind self-righteousness! The ad hominem rejoinders–ready the ad hominem rejoinders! Watch out! Dodge the issue at hand! Question its character and keep moving haphazardly from one flawed point to the next!

All together now! Put every bit of secondhand conjecture into it you’ve got!

All is lost. We don’t stand a chance against its relentless onslaught of exhaustive research and immaculate rhetoric. We may as well lie down and–Christ, how it pains me to say it–admit that it’s right. My friends, I would like to take these last few moments of stubborn close-mindedness to say that it’s been an honor to dig myself into this hole with you.

Unless…wait, of course! Why didn’t we think of it before? Volume! Sheer volume! It’s so simple. Quickly now, we don’t have much time! Don’t let it get a word in edgewise! Derisively cut it off mid-sentence! Now, launch the sophomoric personal attacks! Louder, yes, that’s it, louder! Be repetitive, juvenile, and obstinate! It’s working! It’s working!

We’ve done it! It’s walking away and shaking its head in disgust! Huzzah! Finally–defeated with a single three-minute volley of irrelevant, off-topic shouting!

Ironic, really, isn’t it?

Thanks lbcapps


Comments

One response to “What’s sad is that this actually works”

  1. Nils Ross

    When our forebears embarked on their respective democratic experiments, I don’t think they ever forsaw–or, if they did, really believed in–the possiblity of policy decisions requiring such specialised knowledge that the man on the street couldn’t be relied upon to have at least a first order approximation of an informed opinion. No one ever expected denialism to work better than reason.

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