2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum"Romney Won Using a Debate Technique Called the 'Gish Gallop'" by AmBushed at the Daily Kos
Romney Won Using a Debate Technique Called the 'Gish Gallop'posted by AmBushed at the Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/04/1139926/-Romney-Won-Using-a-Debate-Technique-Called-the-Gish-Gallop
"SNIP...............................................
As fact checkers busily highlight the myriad number of lies and distortions offered by Mitt-Etch-A-Sketch-Romney during last night's debate, and the spinners spin their polls with impunity, I find it interesting that the debate tactic itself has not yet been discussed nor properly analyzed. In fact, the lies and distortions offered by Romney in last night's debate are the very ESSENCE of his tactic -- and is therefore quite pertinent to the discussion. Romney used a debate tactic known as the Gish Gallop.
The Urban Dictionary defines the Gish Gallop thusly:
Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span on that your opponent cant address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop will often have one or more 'talking points' that has a tiny core of truth to it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order to explain that, yes, it's not totally false but the Galloper is distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop generally has two traits.
1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bullshit and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.
2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bullshit. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bullshit, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bullshit into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.
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HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Spread it wide and far!
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's all bullshit...and LIES.
There's time for people to NOTICE. And people (to say nothing of BIG BIRDs) are indeed noticing.
LiberalFighter
(51,096 posts)wouldn't Obama needed to spend time rebutting the bullshit?
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)I swear to God they had Romney on some medications, like speed. He was LEANING in with that crazy smile, and wild eyes, and just didn't stop to take a breath. Can you imagine him with world leaders?? I mean, other ones, not just the ones he pissed off this summer.
applegrove
(118,793 posts)to perform.
NightOwwl
(5,453 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)cpamomfromtexas
(1,247 posts)Interesting post, by the way.
meow2u3
(24,773 posts)Bullshitting on steroids.
Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)YellaDog1950
(44 posts)And it was my first thought when watching the debate. How on earth could the President confront the lies without losing his own message? He would have looked ridiculous saing, "Liar, liar, liar" over and over. However, it seems that the majority of the undecideds have no problem falling for this technique.
I believe I've mentioned the "Lying for the Lord" technique on here before. I equate the Gish Gallop to Lying for the Lord. I'm sure that rMoney thinks that telling blatant lies is not only for the good of the country, but also, for the good of the LDS church.
treestar
(82,383 posts)It would be like saying you could "win" a figure skating competition by doing only one trick over and over. Or that cheating is OK and you can "win" by doing it.