"Mr. Beale divides the world into two parts: “facts” and “rhetoric”. Where the dividing line in depends on where he’s been challenged, and what looks right at any given time, as far as I can tell."

It never ceases to confuse the rhetoricals. From the comments at File 770:Not me, but Aristotle. I merely follow his lead in this regard. I strongly prefer dialectic, but that is reserved for those who are intellectually honest and capable of changing their minds on the basis of information. In general, I speak dialectic to those who communicate on that level and rhetoric to those who don't.Rhetoric, which is the form of discourse to which SJWs are limited, is not based on logic or reason, but emotion. However, because many SJWs attempt to cloak their rhetoric in pseudo-dialectic, I use the dialectic to strip them of their cloak on behalf of those capable of following it, while communicating directly in rhetoric to them.For example, it is not strictly true in the dialectical sense, that SJWs never tell the truth. But as Aristotle tells us, the best rhetoric is rooted in truth, and the statement "SJWs always lie" rings emotionally true, because SJWs lie so often that it resonates with everyone who has been witness to their reliable dishonesty.The interesting thing about rhetoric is that it makes no sense to those who are limited to the dialectic. I didn't fully grasp the way it worked until reading RHETORIC for the second time. It can be bewildering when people tell you that they have been convinced by something that you know can't logically have persuaded them. In such cases, you know they have been persuaded by rhetoric, not facts, reason, or logic.I wouldn't expect an individual who only speaks one form of discourse to be any more able to follow me into the other than if I abruptly switched to speaking Italian or French after beginning in English.For example, this was written for dialecticals. Rhetoricals only see "blah blah blah, I'm so smart, blah blah blah, Aristotle" and scan through it seeking to find some point of attack they can use to minimize or disqualify me. And if they can't, that's when they strike a bored pose or return to the snarky ad hom.After 12 years of this, you eventually start to notice the patterns.

Labels: debate, philosophy