How Mama talks to a liberal
Bookworm on Aug 29 2010 at 2:46 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
You all know how often I complain about the way liberals debate — you offer a fact, and they come back with a personal insult. Marie Stroughter has figured out how to deal with it. Since she can’t be my Mama (that position is already taken), oh, my gosh!, do I want her to be my friend.
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4 Responses to “How Mama talks to a liberal”
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I’m not a fan of the Roosevelts, but I remember a story about Eleanor that illustrates what Marie Stroughter is teaching.
Eleanor was in West Virginia on the hustings for Franklin, talking in a town meeting hall to as hostile a group of farmers and rustics as could be found in a state famed for its ornery, contrarian citizens.
As she was speaking, a man yelled out from the back, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt f**ks his mother!”
As the crowd let out a horrifed gasp, all eyes turned to Eleanor to see her reaction.
She was quiet for a beat, then, deadpan, responded, “Nevertheless. . .” and plunged right back into her speech.
We should all learn how to pull an Eleanor.
But Charles…I get the feeling that that’s what Conservatives have been doing for _years_! I’m beginning to think that we need to come right back at them somehow. The problem is that when they say the equivalent of “Your mother wears army boots” (which I admit always stumped me!), what response _is_ there? The whole thing inevitably – and rapidly – degenerates into a “no I’m not … yes you are” sort of thing.
When in graduate school I learned a quite useful technique to deal with personal attacks from liberals (or at least from folks who thought they were liberal; but really don’t know the meaning of the word as in “liberal education,” i.e., comprehensive and open-minded).
A soon as one starts with a personal attack I would simply say:
“Why are you engaging in personal attacks? If you wish to debate the issue let’s debate the issue. Keep personal attacks for outside.”
Usually this will cause them to look dumbfounded, kind of like they have been slapped along-side the head. They don’t know what to do, so they shut up (I even on a couple of occasions had some apologize to me.) I never tried this on a professor; although, I would have liked to – some of them are quite narrow-minded and need that slap along-side the head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_tL8m9e-c&sns=fb
That is a great example of how Leftists act