Recognizing Liberal Tactics (Offensive and Defensive)

Last updated - 4/24/98


I was tempted on just having a blank page but that brief novelty would have not justified the time you have spent reading, so here goes:

NAME CALLING: Get used to "Homophobe", "Extremist", etc. In my years of debating Liberals I have been labelled by ALL of them. "Nazi", "Hatemonger", I've been called all the bad ones and a few of the really bad ones. Liberals just can't stand to stick to the issue. Why? Because it is very hard for them to intellectually defend issues that to this point they have won using emotional appeals and it is so easy to get us on the defensive if they make a personal attack instead of sticking to the issue! And if you yourself are guilty of this, SHAME ON YOU! You are admitting that you do not have the sufficient knowledge to defend your stance on the issue and so resort to the well celebrated fourth grade techniques of name calling. You might as well stick out your tongue; you are about that effective when you take an intelligent debate and steer it into a name calling contest. Something else; cursing is a no-no, even if you aren't a "goody two shoes". A good friend of mine from a small fishing village in Korea by the name of Chiun summed it up perfectly: "Cursing is a form of helplessness." And he is right (rarely is Chiun wrong!) Cursing, as well as name calling is merely an electronic bumper sticker that says, "I am helpless! I cannot make an intelligent rebuttal of my opponents' comments so I am going to call him names. Maybe if I can get this person mad, they will forget about what we were talking about!" Steer to the higher ground; if you can stick to the issues without calling names, you will come out on top. Seriously, I cannot emphasize this point enough. Whenever you encounter name calling and labelling, you are facing a situation where your opponents can't get you on the defensive with legitimate debates concerning the issue at hand, so they will attempt to put you on the defensive any way they can. This is also a good stalling tactic for them, because while you're explaining that you are not a member of the Nazi Party, nor have you ever been a member, they will either move to another issue or continue to hammer on a point where they believe they have found a sensitive spot in your debative armour. Take that fake arrow out of your armour; you aren't on trial here (at least you should not allow yourself to be!); this is (or at least SHOULD BE!) about the issues.

DEFENSE TO SUCH A TACTIC: If you see it, point it out publicly and make an appeal to stick to the issue. Don't expect it to actually work against your opponent, but everyone else will notice.

2. PERSONAL ATTACKS: Along with name calling, you will no doubt find that the Liberals debating an issue (pick just about ANY issue) will be the ones who are attempting to link their opponents to Hitler or some other favorite Liberal historical personna weapon. You are thinking, "What are they doing? I thought we were debating the worthiness of the death penalty and all of a sudden they call my ideology 'Hitlerian' and attempt to make me (and anyone who thinks like you) ideologically Hitler's twin!" This is a personal attack; again, they have steered from the ISSUE (very scary ground for most Liberals!) and have used personal attacks in an attempt to get you on the defensive since they obviously have had no luck while sticking to the issues! If they attack you, know that they have either run out of intellectual ammo (i.e., you are winning) or you have literally made them think to the point where they are angry at themselves because, blast it; he IS right but they aren't going to admit it and so they will attack you. STICK TO THE ISSUES.

DEFENSE FOR SUCH AN ATTACK: Again, publicly point out what is going on and make a call for a debate on the issues.

DEFENSIVE

TLDS: A Witness original phrase, it simply stands for "Typical Liberal Double Standard". It came as a result of experiencing double standards from most if not all Liberals with whom I have debated over any serious period of time. They will apply one standard for them and then change it when it becomes convenient and ONLY in the situations they personally approve of; if you were to attempt the SAME "exclusions to logic" they do, you would be incorrect merely because they disagree with you.

SHUNT: That is, they take your attack and re-route it, by either telling a story, making a comment to another question of yours or ignoring it outright. Don't let them wiggle out of it; if they start telling a story, say, "That's nice but you did not answer my question" and it is a good idea to quote your original question because no doubt they will "forget" what it was. If they ignore it, you can post them again with a copy of the original question along with a friendly reminder that you really wanted them to answer the question.
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