We all have to navigate the complexities of an unjust and uncertain world. Words are capable of capturing truth, but malicious rhetoric can also be fabricated with the ultimate goal of leading the public astray. When you work with words long enough, you become familiar with the malicious slight-of-hand that can be utilized to create the illusion of a rational sounding argument.
These tangles are both convincing and dangerous. Countering such arguments often proves to be a challenge.
Sentences can be manipulated in the same fashion as statistics. Concepts can be simplified or misrepresented in a way that dulls the hard edges of fact. If you line up a sequence of tampered ideas, it’s possible to create an inviting pathway to nowhere.
We often say that the devil is in the details. The trickery involved in manipulating people comes through disguising deceit in a way that appears innocuous at first blush. A skilled manipulator is quick to turn a crowd against anyone who protests over what they frame as a triviality.
But the difference between right and wrong is never trivial. Anyone with a platform must always be mindful of what they assume without question because a sequence of poorly conceived notions can trick you into becoming the author of your own demise.
Falsifying evidence for a widely believed lie
Once your audience has seized onto the illusion of an argument, they often refuse to be displaced no matter how delicately you demonstrate the inherent contradictions of their position.
For example, people are inclined to assume wrongdoing among all groups of people. A homogeneous impression of the inherent weaknesses of human nature is frequently applied universally without any consideration for culture, race, gender, or other contributing factors.
It’s challenging to combat the argument that “Human beings are inclined to evil.” The statement is absurdly general and oversimplified to the point of uselessness. Yet that assumption is the basis for many widely held concepts that ultimately result in preventable human suffering.
No matter what issue is under debate, observers are tempted to assume that there are bad actors on all sides who are deserving of punishment. Having reached this conclusion, they are then compelled to seek out evidence that supports the claim.
Seek and ye shall find.
A perverse definition of criminality
Passive observers are tricked by perversions of logic combined with the artistry of rhetoric. Shades of truth are magnified to create camouflage for massive deceits. The public is convinced by a mirage and they set off down the road to cruelty.
It might be true that there are unlawful people in all spheres, but it becomes a matter of detail. A mother who steals a loaf of bread to feed her starving child is technically guilty of a crime. So is a man who murders thousands of people in order to satiate his savage bloodlust.
It’s possible to categorize both these examples under the umbrella of “criminal behavior.” Effectively, that argument trivializes the act of mass murder and magnifies any transgressions of a parent caring for her child.
A secondary effect of this kind of argument is that the wider public develops a perverse reaction to the topic of “crime.” Merely invoking the word stirs up the frustration of cognitive dissonance. The urgency to be free of this discomfort transforms the masses into a mob.
This kind of behavior blurs the complexity of the landscape beneath us and leaves everyone disoriented.
Replacing an observation with an assumption
There are entire belief systems that are well versed in shaving off the angles of our reason. There are many commonplace assumptions that serve to bend our logical thought process to make us inadvertently conform to an ideology of brutality.
People are often inclined to offer the thought terminating cliché of the “not all” argument whenever there is a discussion about significant human rights issues. For example, if you propose that misogyny is a byproduct of patriarchal systems that benefit men, people will respond “Well, not all men participate in maintaining those systems.”
At first it seems reasonable to offer a defense of the presumed allies who are working in support of a common cause. However, the actual effect of a “not all” argument is to distract from the more important discussion at hand.
We rarely even consider that there might not be any allies. Perhaps even the men who think they are allies unconsciously work to support the systems that benefit them. It’s critical to recognize that we should never accept something as fact without evidence, nor should we be coerced into acknowledging an unproven reality.
When the conversation switches to the defense of an assumption, the chance at progress is lost.
We allow unreasonable assumptions to obstruct progress
We shouldn’t feel pressure to waste time acknowledging the people who are already conforming to a common sense moral standard. Nobody ever says that we shouldn’t have law enforcement because “not all” people engage in criminal behavior. Everybody knows that already, and it’s revealing to consider where the “not all” argument is never deployed.
Ask yourself why you accept that rhetorical tactic in some areas, but wouldn’t ever consider mentioning it in others. That reaction is evidence of social conditioning. Some issues are trivialized while others are magnified all out of proportion. This is related to the example of categorizing mass murder and theft of food under the universal label of “crime.”
The hard edges of logic have been shaved away to create a bizarre assessment of our reality.
There’s an obvious need to pool our resources so that we can work together and stop all forms of abuse. However, we’ve been so programmed with nonsensical thinking that we create obstacles out of thin air.
How to combat this behavior
Anyone can look around and recognize that there are problems in our society. The issue is not necessarily that there are malicious forces supporting the problems directly. Instead, there are systems that proliferate the flawed arguments that deter our ability to respond.
The solution to fixing our issues comes from focusing on the problem instead of allowing ourselves to get distracted by arguments based on unsupported assumptions. We have to recondition ourselves not to be deceived by lies that are camouflaged by a hint of truth.
Train yourself to always redirect the conversation back to our common humanity. We don’t want children to go hungry. We don’t want people to suffer. We can’t allow injustices to persist because we’ve allowed ourselves to defend the illusion of innocent allies that might not even exist.
Don’t fall into the trap of rhetorical sleight of hand
It’s important to recognize that there are otherwise decent people who have been trained to believe malicious arguments. These are individuals who are so well-practiced in their rhetoric that they debate with the supreme confidence of a street magician performing a magic trick.
You can’t be expected to expose a well-practiced trick the first time it is presented to you. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that’s how you must respond. When you fail, it will be taken as evidence that your position is flawed.
Instead, bring the conversation back to basic humanity. Appeal to the need to end human suffering. Keep the focus on the benefits to our society, and over time we can all work to erode the deceitful rote conditioning that compels the general public to work against its own interests.
You won’t convince everybody but you don’t have to. All you need is a majority. We can all hold onto the hope that our shared humanity will, one day, emerge victorious.
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