Comments on: Why Wingnuts Write Wrong (It’s not the heat: it’s the stupidity) http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:56:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Interrobang http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8085 Interrobang Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:22:08 +0000 http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8085 Thanks in part to you, I wrote an entire blog post on right-wing argumentation tactics, and linked to you approvingly. That is a very nice unpacking of a Gish Gallop. :) Thanks in part to you, I wrote an entire blog post on right-wing argumentation tactics, and linked to you approvingly. That is a very nice unpacking of a Gish Gallop. :)

]]> By: WereBear http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8050 WereBear Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:34:33 +0000 http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8050 Love your title! A Canadian Professor, Dr. Altemeyer has an online book called "The Authoritarians" which explains that this is actually how their minds work. Since they do have a lot of contradictory stuff in their heads, they have to make sure these incompatible thoughts are held apart by sheer force of will. Not only does this suck up energy which could be used for thinking, they literally cannot follow any train of logic to a conclusion. They do not have gears that mesh. So it's not really a matter of writing poorly on purpose. And it's not just ignorant. It's literally that their brains don't work right. And we have the scientific research to prove it. http://realityprinciples.blogspot.com/2007/03/focus-on-reality-challenged.html Love your title! A Canadian Professor, Dr. Altemeyer has an online book called “The Authoritarians” which explains that this is actually how their minds work.

Since they do have a lot of contradictory stuff in their heads, they have to make sure these incompatible thoughts are held apart by sheer force of will. Not only does this suck up energy which could be used for thinking, they literally cannot follow any train of logic to a conclusion. They do not have gears that mesh. So it’s not really a matter of writing poorly on purpose. And it’s not just ignorant.

It’s literally that their brains don’t work right. And we have the scientific research to prove it.

http://realityprinciples.blogspot.com/2007/03/focus-on-reality-challenged.html

]]> By: Interrobang http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8042 Interrobang Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:11:05 +0000 http://www.thechaff.com/2008/03/31/why-wingnuts-write-wrong-its-not-the-heat-its-the-stupidity/#comment-8042 I don't know who you are, but I think I love you. Discourse analytics always makes me feel all tingly in my private bits. Now I'm going to put on my rhetorician hat: What you are pointing at is, in fact, a variation on a wingnut rhetorical technique, a subset of "move the goalpoasts" known vernacularly as the "Gish Gallop," after the Cre(a)ti(o)nist who first brought it to use in public. Basically, the object of the Gish Gallop is to tinfoil the rhetorical radar by spewing out so many premises, crystallised factoids of bullshit and opinion, or just plain lies in as short a span as possible, in order to make one's argument impossible to refute because it simply can't be unpacked. I don’t know who you are, but I think I love you. Discourse analytics always makes me feel all tingly in my private bits. Now I’m going to put on my rhetorician hat:

What you are pointing at is, in fact, a variation on a wingnut rhetorical technique, a subset of “move the goalpoasts” known vernacularly as the “Gish Gallop,” after the Cre(a)ti(o)nist who first brought it to use in public. Basically, the object of the Gish Gallop is to tinfoil the rhetorical radar by spewing out so many premises, crystallised factoids of bullshit and opinion, or just plain lies in as short a span as possible, in order to make one’s argument impossible to refute because it simply can’t be unpacked.

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