Saturday, May 12, 2012

Meta: From Ancient Greek, Meaning "Beyond", Not "I Have No Clue"

Amazing, isn't it? Here's another piece of tripe out of the liberal media. Watch as this woman doesn't even let Tim Curry doesn't even get a word in edge wise, even when he's trying to call her out for her media tricks.

I've never been more proud to be a liberal. Especially when he got thrown off the air. I didn't expect her to do that. I'm really impressed; Tamron Hall is currently my hero. She cut his mike right there on the spot; she didn't let him try to change the subject, she didn't let him try any of the usual right wing tricks to undermine a real story and the people who present them. Take a close look at what we saw of Curry's "debating" style. He was invited on to discuss the Romney Campaign's to a particular issue. Most mature, responsible and respectful adults would discuss it. But Curry, like most in the right wing claptrap, is not a mature, responsible and respectful adult. Like most people who take their marching orders from FOX news and the modern oligarchic gerontocracy that runs the right-wing noise machine,  he takes the follow steps:



  1. Attempt to derail the argument. You already set yourself up in a position that you can't defend. So rather than having to worry about defending your position, you instead attempt to derail the argument right from the get go. This is almost pathological for them. The debate could be on pink fluffy pandas and they'd still attempt to derail it.
  2. First resort: Ad hominem attacks. Curry displays a classic ad hominem attack here: rather than answer the question, he jumps to unfounded accusations that the media does these "tricks" - like reporting on the story. 
  3. Seconds resort: Notice how, when called on his ad hominem attack (or rather, it was brutally shot down), he (pathetically) attempted to set up a strawman of their position. "I'm trying to go meta-meta on you." In doing this, he mischaracterized her argument. Naturally, this one was shot down, too. Using words you don't understand is optional.
  4. Third resort: Playing the victim. This usually comes in after someone calls you on your BS ad hominem attack and your strawman gets eviscerated. He didn't get this far; I'm not sure if Tamron knew this was what was coming up or if she'd just had it up to here with him and wanted to throw him off, but regardless what happened, we didn't get a chance to see him play victim. Conservatives will usually take this position: "Obviously you're not letting me finish - you're part of the liberal media and you've got it out for me!" Projection is a key part of this stage. You can't derail the argument, your strawman fell flat on his face, so the next option is to accuse your opponent of all your faults and hope that the audience is too blind and stupid to notice.That or you sling accusations of "being silenced" and "nobody is brave enough to debate you" when in reality, people are sick and tired of how stupid you are and how you don't debate at all. It's all geared towards the dog and pony show that make the viewers who agree with him feel like they're under assault at all times from an imaginary enemy.
In a way, it's like watching Kubler-Ross's stages of grief. This is the same pattern that all conservative positions fall into. You can't defend the position because it's indefensible, so you start attacking your attacker rather than their argument. Then you mischaracterize their argument, and then play victim when that fails.

Please note that none of what I have done here in my personal attacks against Curry are ad hominems. I don't even know what his position was, or if he even had a position (or if he even knew what that position was). Calling someone an idiot is not an ad hominem. Saying someone is "immature, irresponsible, and disrespectful" is not an ad hominem. Saying, "of course Curry said that. He's close friends with Romney" would likely be an ad hominem attack, especially if it's irrelevant to his point. But I'm not talking about his point, because it's a moot one. I'm addressing his behavior, and his poor "debating" style. This sort of "debating" style is endemic in the States, and to a degree, it has something to do with the fact that we're human (the human brain isn't wired for logic. It's just not. That's why logic can seem to defy "common sense" sometimes, and why it's so hard for some people to wrap their heads around it).

So anyway, I just want it to be made known that Tamron Hall is currently my hero. She's very impressive - way to go, Tamron! Now if only the rest of the slugs in the MSM would follow your lead and just throw those fuckers off and never invite them back on.

3 comments:

  1. Um, why would this nice lady throw esteemed actor and me look alike Tim Curry off of her show?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tim Carney, not the well-known character actor Tim Curry.

    ReplyDelete