If your position is thoroughly thought out and solid, then people trying to ask you 'gotcha' questions shouldn't be threatening. A bad-faith inquiry won't have any impact - you can honestly answer, because your position will have fully grappled with the ugliness already. 1/
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People sometimes just do not want to admit they are wrong especially to a person or group that would jump on it and use it as the sole point of their argument against yours
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I often find "Gotcha" questions a waste of time to answer- if they are based off a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge on the subject, from the viewpoint of a lay person it can appear to give the bad faith arguers credibility where they have none. Ie: hydroxychloroquine
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Also bad faith inquiriers usually just end up twisting the answer anyways
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sometimes you're peddling a glib fantasy in the service of a greater good. don't want gotchas ruining that, since you might have a good defense, but it sounds messier than the fantasy you're pushing.
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The best defense I'm aware of is, all solutions have parts that sound bad to an audience that won't have time to think as much as you did. If you're the only one who talks about the messy parts, it looks like it's the only solution with messy parts. I kind of buy this? I think?
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Assuming the only goal was noble inquiry, yes. But, rhetorically, a well designed barb is inherently harder to catch than to throw and so discouraging them from being thrown (by refusing to answer across the board) effectively IS armor.
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I think part of it is taking caution in what one speaks because a 3-5 minute response that cites sources could end up distilled down to a 2-3 second clip.
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If the audience is listening in good faith, then the I totally agree, but it’s really fucking tough with a hostile audience. If I’m arguing against one person using gotcha questions, I feel confident I can defuse the bad faith... 1/2
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...but if it’s a room full of people, I feel like all I can do is say, “I’d rather talk about this one on one.” Or something like that. 2/2
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It's not worth the time. Gotcha questions are ones which requires chains of logic to show why they are bad-faith questions, and nobody not salary on your desire will stick around for the answer.
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