How to beat trump in a debate

[ecstatic]

Donald Trump is probably unaware that he’s an avid practitioner of a debating method known among philosophers and rhetoricians as the Gish Gallop. Its aim is simple: to defeat one’s opponent by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments. Trump owes much of his political success to this tactic—and to the fact that so few people know how to beat it. Although his 2024 campaign has been fairly quiet so far, we can expect to hear a lot more Gish Galloping in the coming months.

1. Pick your battle.
When facing a Gish Galloper, going line by line is impractical, if not impossible. Instead, single out their weakest claim or argument. Highlight and mock it.

2. Call them out.
Don’t let your audience be fooled into assuming that your opponent has special command of the subject because of all the “facts” they’ve just spouted. Explain to them what your opponent is doing, and that the Gallop is really just a sleight of hand... Putting “raincoats” on your audience means making them aware of what a Gish Galloper is subjecting them to. Point out, for example, that the speed at which they’re speaking is a sign of deceit, not intelligence. Or even that they’re relying on a favorite tactic of the Kremlin’s.

3. Don’t budge.
Above all, make sure you stop Gish Gallopers midstream. And then don’t let them move on to the next falsehood. Keep pounding at them with a well-prepared rebuttal. They may not concede the point, but they’ve been derailed and are now forced to argue on your terms, not theirs.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/donald-trump-debate-strategy-gish-gallop/673061/

https://archive.ph/qr3lz

The author (Mehdi Hasan) goes on to say that Jonathan Swan gave somewhat of a master class on how to stop trump from gish galloping in his August 2020 interview.

What do you think? Do you agree?

And do you think she should have a calm and relaxed demeanor where it's more about mocking his bullshit, or should she go full righteous prosecutor on him?

[BlueKota]

1. I say mock him

Narcissistic bullies can't stand it when the tables get turned on them.

[applegrove]

2. Anderson Cooper broke Kellyanne Conway's gish back when Trump

Last edited Sat Aug 17, 2024, 01:52 AM - Edit history (2)

was President. Very hard to do.

This may have been it though it is on one topic. Kellyanne Conway sure is slippery:

https://m.

This top 10 AC youtube video mentions sparing with Kellyanne was something he was good at:

https://m.

[ecstatic]

7. Lol. I'll try to find it on YouTube.

Well, maybe. Those days were absolutely horrible with kellyanne and the other fraudsters gaslighting every night.

[applegrove]

10. I don't think he allowed her back on again.

[cachukis]

3. She needs to do both. A chuckle, a smirk and then

a left cross examination. "When you said this..., did you mean...? And then stay on it until he gets exasperated.

[msongs]

4. when trump is bloviating just tell him to put up or shut up nt

[FoxNewsSucks]

5. That's from his book "Win Every Argument"

I really miss his MSNBC show. He was excellent.

And yes, I hope she is calm relaxed and mocking of MF45, with periodic givings of "that look".

[ecstatic]

9. The "I'm speaking" (final warning) look?

Or the "I know his type" look? 😅

[duncang]

6. I watched VP Harris

In committee hearings. She doesn’t fool around. Tfg won’t be able to handle it. My prediction is he will implode.

[brush]

8. Romney did that in the first debate with Pres. O in 2012 and had some sucess with it.

Ironically enough it was then VP Joe Biden who advised him how to handle it...just laugh it off and point out the ridiculousness of specific points (like Russia being a huge threat to us and NATO, which has proven to be quite true as Russia can't defeat Ukraine, a country it invaded and is a fifth of it's size).

Since then debate rules have tightened and participant's time to speak is controlled by the moderators and they can't directly converse back and forth with each other.

[lastlib]

11. I thought I came up with a good line Biden could've used in the June debate......

(Of course, there was no way for me to feed it to him....) After The Felon blasted out one of his verbal-diarrhea screeds, Joe could've started his rebuttal with, "Well, after that little trip down Malarkey Boulevard, let's look at some ACTUAL facts..." Deride all of the claims at once as falsehoods, then follow with truth.

[arlyellowdog]

12. My Mother used to say, "Never overestimate the American voter."

I felt like Hillary let some Trump stuff go because it was so obviously dumb or a lie. I hope she (maybe with a visual if possible) calls out every lie.

[hawkeye21]

13. Just show up