I ripped this off from ‘butterflies and wheels’ Very useful. here’s a link:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoricprintall.php
(hey, it worked!!!)
couple of choice excerpts to wet your whistle….
Embrace contradiction
Be ostentatiously anti-elitist, and sprinkle your writings equally ostentatiously with references to Foucault, Irigaray, Derrida, Kristeva and such salt-of-the-earth types along with words like ‘problematize’, ‘phallogocentric’, ‘hegemonic discourse’, and similar folksy slang.
Mention the Armchair
Call your opponent an ‘armchair’ something. Armchair psychologist, armchair shrink, armchair historian. Whatever. Indicates that the other party is sheltered, lazy, housebound, nerdy, reclusive, uninformed, unhealthy, and out of touch, whereas you are out there with your sleeves rolled up, down in the muck with the other therapists and archaeologists and coal miners. When there is digging to be done you get out there and dig, you don’t just sit in the comfy chair and ponder.
Say the outcome was predictable
When your opponents point out flaws in your argument, smile cheerfully and say you think this outcome was entirely predictable.
Use obscurity
Generate such a tangled clot of verbiage that opponents cannot be sure you haven’t said something profound.
And my own, personal tip for you, the argumentative blogger? Argumentum ad homonim. Works a treat, every time.
