Gish gallop
About
From RationalWiki: "named after creationist Duane Gish, is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood in real time. The term was coined by Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. Sam Harris describes the technique as 'starting 10 fires in 10 minutes.'"
This is an effective technique in competitive debate as it may convince a naive audience that the other participant does not have a case, due to their seeming inability to quickly answer so many "simple" arguments, when in fact every one of the arguments being offered is wrong or (at best) misleading.
The Gish gallop is a form of rhetorical distraction.
Inlinks
- The Gish gallop is in some ways similar to the rhetorical technique of acorn tossing.
Outlinks
Reference
- Wikipedia redirects to Duane Gish
- RationalWiki