Update: Rollins has his first post dissecting an article up, and my goodness, it is great! He walks through both rhetorical examination (what they wrote and why) as well as some quick tricks to figure out what the connection between the people. That last bit I found especially interesting, as usually I just rely on “Lying people, lying because it is good for them” as a baseline, but Rollins shows how he found out how closely linked everyone was, and more directly that the article from the Atlantic was really a paid for advertisement/press release. Highly recommended!
J. Rollins, and I were talking posting back and forth here the other day regarding the difficulties in arguing with leftists, whether due to not caring about the same things ala. moral foundations theory, or just not agreeing what words mean, or if indeed they mean anything beyond the words themselves. Turns out, he teaches rhetoric and had quite a bit to say on the matter, had been thinking about writing up some essays online, and he’s done it:
I don’t know if bellowing at him is what pushed him over the edge, but I am glad to see him starting this up! (Good thing I didn’t go for the “You’re a loose cannon! I want your badge and your gun!” cliché instead.)
He is inviting links and examples of “What the hell kind of argument is that?” for dissection and examination over at Wonderland Rules, so check it out. I think a good examination of what makes people buy into lines like “Sick leave is infrastructure!” is pretty valuable these days, and he shouldn’t want for material.
I hope this guy is going to articulate things that freeze my brain when I try to dissect them. I’ve therefore subscribed.
There’s a genuine talent in the current faux left (labelled ‘progressive’ where you are) for thought-ending slogans. Sex work is work, for example. Trans rights are human rights. Black lives matter. All elegantly constructed to be self-evident and thereby create space to slip in whatever they want to really say, while leaving opponents to their underlying arguments quite befuddled. It’s the most powerful rhetorical tool.