Re: OT fallacies

mAsterdam wrote:
> Are you defending the insults?

I was neither defending nor attacking them. But, I will answer your question for closure. I'm not sure if you mean defending the veracity of the insults or defending their social effectiveness. As to veracity, I prefer not to comment. As to effectiveness, I am undecided. Dealing with VI is difficult to say the least. And they pose a serious conundrum as partly described by Fabian Pascal in

  http://www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/3161496.htm

I'm leaning toward a four step process for the initial VI encounter:

  Step 1) provide a concise, precise, careful, logical   response to their claim/question.

  Step 2) when the VI (as they always do) refuses to accept   reason and responds with the typical irrational rant,   provide a concise, precise, careful expose of their   irrationality and fallacious reasoning.

  Step 3) when the VI (as they always do) refuses to accept   reason and responds with another irrational rant, rebuke   and insult them being sure to point out that their actions   are those of a vociferous ignoramus beyond reasonable   communication and unworthy of refutation.

  Step 4) ignore any further communication from them on the   topic at hand.

The real dilemma occurs post initial encounter. What to do when VI come back again and again with the same VI claims? The optimal solution, I think, would be if EVERYONE TOTALLY and UTTERLY ignored them. The problem is that often some naive person gives them the benefit of doubt and gets sucked into a discussion with them repeating steps 1 and 2 often MANY times giving them the publicity they crave and aiding them in polluting the mindscape. Thus, for repeat encounters jumping immediately to Step 3 may be the best option to help reduce pollution and for the reasons outlined before:

1. warnings to future readers. If a VI is outed frequently it increases the likelihood future readers will avoid their snake-oil.
2. shame as deterrent. If a VI is insulted enough times by enough people they /may/ pause to examine themselves.
3. venting frustration. Let's not forget the benefit of venting some of the extreme frustration VI cause in those intelligent enough to realize the damage VI do.
   • Keith --