Wednesday 1 February 2017

mad libs or ready for prime-time

Writing for Kottke, Tim Carmody invites us to think broadly about the rhetoric television politics and how the different venues intersect and how the strategies of enabling agents wield their sophistry to blur, confuse and manipulate the normally distinct forums and platforms. Would that we could examine the quiver of the rhetorician academically with Lincoln-Douglas debate club stakes as it’s really a fascinating exercise that’s been debased to the regrettable but very necessary act of bullshit detecting and knowing when the weaker argument is made the stronger. Unfortunately, the ability to articulate how this is done is valued far less that the talent for making the specious or the deceptive believable. I wonder if Dear Leader’s majordomo is a better advisor and mouthpiece.