good vs bad arguments

Scott Adams

@ScottAdamsSays

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Here's a good general rule for spotting dishonest arguments: A good argument sticks to the topic and weighs the pros and cons. A bad argument relies entirely on an analogy. The Democrat argument against Trump is "He will act like (fill in name of dictator)." That's analogy-thinking, which is almost the opposite of evaluating the pros and cons. When your opponent stops talking about policy and relies entirely on analogies and weird new definitions of words, you already won the debate. But you haven't won the persuasion, necessarily. That's harder.

Joe Moore 

@SimJoeMoore

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15h

Analogies are not persuasive? Seems like we need a corollary. I’m guessing it’s not the analogy as much as the “literal” equating.

Scott Adams

@ScottAdamsSays

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15h

They are persuasive if they are scary. They are never part of reason though.