Why is it important to learn how to recognize and counter these? \u00a0Because they’re all tools used to limit our effectiveness. \u00a0Too often we make the mistake of assuming that their paucity of logic and supporting facts is obvious to anyone following the debate. \u00a0It’s not. \u00a0And using them back at the Left is only marginally better than succumbing altogether: they lower the level of discourse to the point where rational argument can’t prevail, either because the discussion itself is so debased, or because other people listening lose interest and walk away convinced that there’s no difference between the sides.<\/p>\n

Why are these tactics so common across so many sites and platforms? I suspect there are three main reasons: first, there are professional online activists who are trained to do this kind of thing in much the way Media Matters and others train people for appearances on television or teach them to call talk radio shows or write letters to the editor; second, many more people consciously or subconsciously emulate what they see other like-minded commenters doing; and third, there are people who are just\u00a0sociopathic<\/del>\u00a0naturally gifted in this regard and need neither training nor example to create and employ such tactics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for center-right activists to learn to recognize these things so as not to be suckered in by them, and to fight back effectively when encountering leftists using them. Being able to spot, identify, understand, and respond to these tactics undercuts their power. Given enough education and discipline, perhaps we can return to a more rational and persuasion-based political conversation and jettison the juvenile bickering that seems to have become the norm since the emergence of social media and the ascendance of the infantile Progressive movement which dominates its political channels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Read the whole thing. \u00a0And be better-armed.<\/div>\n