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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
 Posted - 08/24/2014 : 19:29:22
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Smilodon's Retreat is starting a series of blog posts on common denialist tactics, starting with Gish Gallop and Goal Post Shifting, with suggested responses and an important point:There have been on-line debates that have gone on for more than 3 years. And the creationist still does this. After more than 3 years. Theses requests and responses by you will not change how they act. The point is not to convince someone who is so dogmatic about their beliefs that no evidence will ever convince them otherwise. The point, especially in public discussions, is to remind people who are silent but reading, that the opponent’s claims are meritless. Interestingly, one of his suggestions, keeping a list of the denialist's unanswered questions and unreferenced claims and re-pasting it into the debate was something I was doing ten years ago.
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2014 : 20:05:27 [Permalink]
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The series continues with Forced Ambiguity and Cherry Picking:...These are two tactics that are almost opposites of each other. The first deals with intentionally making vague comments that can never be guaranteed to mean a particular thing. I refer to this as the “I never said that” denial. Cherry picking is the careful selection of data, results, or information to present. If one chooses to present 4 papers out of 117 and just happens to choose the four papers that support their claim while ignoring the 113 that refute their claim, that is cherry picking. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2014 : 08:33:13 [Permalink]
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Good ones. I will repost on our facebook page.
It would be nice to see a conversation about denialist tactics on this forum.
Denialists sometimes come from unexpected places. I have had an off again on again debate on climate change with Robert Sheaffer, a well known skeptic and one of the original CSICOP folks. And as good a skeptic as he is, he denies climate change. (He also has a problem with feminism, but we haven't gone there yet.) Our debates are very civil and as I've gotten to know him, and talking with him in person, he's become a friend of mine. But there is that libertarian streak that seems to short circuit his thinking on climate change or more to the point, his views on mitigation.
Anyhow, it goes back to that thing I always worry about. What area of reason am I blind to, if any, and willing to argue against. Off topic I know. But there you go. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Denialist tactics
