Geoffrey MillerVerified account

1/Let's have a little talk about GISH GALLOPERS. Gish Galloping is a debating technique that you will almost certainly argue at some point on Twitter or elsewhere. And it's really annoying. So you need to be prepared. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop …

2/A Gish Galloper is someone who rapidly shifts his or her argument in the middle of a discussion, making a bunch of unrelated points in rapid succession. Usually, all of the points are weak or wrong, but as you try to rebut each one, the Galloper shifts to another.

3/Example: Me: "Immigration is helping America!" Galloper: "LEGAL immigration." Me: "Net illegal immigration has been negative since 2006." Galloper: "...Blue-collar jobs!" Me: "Most immigrants are now high-skilled." Galloper: "...Immigrants don't assimilate!" ...and so forth.

4/At first, Gish Galloping might seem like a disingenuous, dishonest debating tactic. Instead, I think it's usually just a sign of loose, disordered thinking.

5/A Gish Galloper is cycling between unrelated arguments because he isn't really considering your points. He's kicking out against your entire worldview.

6/The only slightly hypothetical Gish Galloper in the above example is throwing out any anti-immigration argument he can think of. He has a diffuse, vague, but very strong feeling that immigration is bad, so he's just going to throw the kitchen sink at people who say it's good.

7/If you could somehow pin down the Gish Galloper and force him to focus on a specific point, he would probably be confused and flummoxed. Because he doesn't think in terms of following specific arguments through to their individual conclusions.

8/Hence, it's POINTLESS to argue logically with a Gish Galloper, as you would if you were dealing with a focused thinker. It's a losing battle. So do you just ignore Gish Gallopers? You can, but there actually is a way to argue with them...