Post by RS Davis on Dec 13, 2003 22:44:33 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Radley Balko Wrote:[/glow] Hold on to your barstool. The nanny statists are coming again. After considerable success with tobacco, where they've managed to restrict advertising, impose mammoth excise taxes, and strip tobacco companies of the class action defenses afforded to most every other defendant, the "public health" activists are now coming for your beer.
There's a rhetorical tool in the world of debate called reductio ad absurdium. You take your opponent's argument to its most extreme conclusion -- the more absurd, the better. If done right, your audience will see that the other guy's argument can be applied to achieve an end that most people would find laughable, and you'll have your opponent backpedaling.
Unfortunately, reductio arguments don't work so well anymore. That's because we live in an age that's becoming increasingly comfortable with absurdity.
There's a rhetorical tool in the world of debate called reductio ad absurdium. You take your opponent's argument to its most extreme conclusion -- the more absurd, the better. If done right, your audience will see that the other guy's argument can be applied to achieve an end that most people would find laughable, and you'll have your opponent backpedaling.
Unfortunately, reductio arguments don't work so well anymore. That's because we live in an age that's becoming increasingly comfortable with absurdity.
- Rick
