Sophistry

As a lawyer, it is my job to persuade. There are a lot of methods of doing that. Some of them are legitimate and some are not.

Not many lawyers engage in blatant dishonesty. But there are a lot of ways that an argument can be made without any technical lies, yet the truth is presented in such a way as to give the wrong impression. Things are left out, wrong impressions made, etc. I strive to not be that kind of lawyer.

It backfires, in any case. A sneaky argument might win one battle, but after a while the judge and jury start to realize that they are making decisions based on LESS knowledge, not more. Contradictions start to creep in and a facade of untruth starts to crumble. Bob Bennett points out that a forgery looks worse and worse as time goes on.

This kind of thing is so common on the internet. There are techniques that people employ that make an argument or assertion seem really convincing, but it is actually mostly trickery. I think that I will do a few blog posts on tricks I have seen on the internet and in my profession. 

This week I'll show you what I call, List of Sillies.

It is where someone knows that the other side has a good argument, so they try to trick you into being biased against it by burying it in a list of silly arguments that are attributed to that other person.

So, let's say that Sam and I are having a debate. And I know that Sam has a good argument, so I'll say, "here are the arguments that Sam thinks prove his argument" and then I'll list a bunch of really stupid arguments, attribute them to Sam, and then bury Sam's good argument in the middle somewhere.

Here's another example. Let's say that I was arguing that the earth is flat. In order to make you biased against believing in a round earth, I could make a list of arguments supposedly made by "round earthers." Most of these arguments would be silly and are probably not arguments made by "round earthers" at all. But by making them look silly, I start to bias you against them. Then I slip in one or two of the good arguments that "round earthers" make to associate them with stupid arguments. Then, when you hear those good arguments, you'll dismiss them without even thinking about them. Here is my list of "crazy arguments by round-earthers."

1. Moon looks round, so earth gotta be round, right?
2. The sky is round, so the earth gotta be round too!
3. Crazy astronauts, paid off by the government, claim it's round because they went to "space."
4. Stars spin around the north star, so earth has gotta spin, right?
5. Flat earth is just a conspiracy theory!

You'll notice that I put the "round earther's" strongest arguments in the middle and spoke about it with disdain, using scare-quotes. People arguing that the earth is round probably don't usually make the first, second and fifth arguments. Usually they'll jump to the fact that astronauts have been to space and seen that the earth is round.

So, by using sophistry, I am trying to get you to associate that argument with the other, sillier arguments. I bury it among the silly arguments and then treat it with disdain. Hopefully you'll just dismiss anyone trying to make that argument without actually listening to them.

Can you create your own List of Sillies? Please do and post it in the comments. Also, if you find one on the internet, please share. There are a lot of good ones.