Asking the Right Questions
Danny Lemieux on Sep 14 2010 at 6:10 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
Have you ever been in a debate with a Liberal/Lefty and been so overwhelmed with either the vapidity of their arguments or the absolute volume of misstatement, sloganeering or fact-twisting that you are left open-mouthed and unable to respond. After the interchange, you kick yourself by thinking, “I should have said….”. Happens to me all the time. Instead of constructively engaging, my mind asks “where do I begin?”. Or, alternately, I may start hammering them with facts and my own positions, none of which they will retain.
Over time, in business negotiations, I have learned that the best way to buy time while digesting information is to ask questions to better flesh out the issue. I don’t mean a Socratic dialog, I mean questions meant to make the other person think about their position(s). I offer the following in the context of the very excellent comments that have been made on this blog, recently, about how to constructively engage Liberals, especially the Liberals who have no idea of why they think the way they do, not to mention having a clue regarding why conservatives and libertarians think as we do. I propose that this latter designation represents a very significant block of prospective voters and we need to work on them, not just before November but with an eye to 2012.
In my own evolution from Scoop Jackson Liberalism to a blended libertarian conservatism, I recalled how one memorable question could completely change my world view. It didn’t happen right away, but over time I would mull that question and it would have its intended effect of making me change my mind. So, I would like to ask for your help with this question: how can we use single questions to help puncture the Liberal/Left bubble-sphere?” I also propose that using “why do you think…” is a good way of appealing to the other person’s intellect.
Here are some examples of what I mean:
When a Liberal uses the race card: “why do you think that people on the Left are so utterly obsessed with peoples’ race?”
When a Liberal talks about America’s supposed insults to Islam: “Why do you think that all countries the surrounding the world of Islam are subject to Muslim attacks and terrorism?”
On Democrats being for the little guy: “Why do you think it is that the Democrat leadership is so filthy rich?”
On the Tea Party: “With what beliefs of the Tea Party do you disagree?”
On Democrats being for minorities: “Why do you think that blacks have fared so badly in Democrat-controlled inner cities since Johnson’s War on Poverty of 50 years-ago?”
One Liberal Dependency on Government: “Please share your thoughts with me on how one can be simultaneously dependent on Government programs and still be free?”
When Liberals talk about Islam’s tolerance for others: “How many Muslims do you know? Can you tell me what’s in the Koran about tolerance toward others?” (OK, that’s two questions).
Would anyone else like to either help improve upon or add to this list of ”one, memorable questions” that can puncture Liberal/Lefties’ world views?
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12 Responses to “Asking the Right Questions”
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When I meet those of the Afrikaner skin tone tradition, I might make a leading statement or two, but I always ask questions in order to probe out the opposition and see what their defenses consist of.
This doesn’t take long, 5 to 10 minutes. After that and only after that, will the decision be made as to the right approach to take.
General questions I like to ask liberals while composing my thoughts:
1. So, did you ever learn anything in school besides hemp macrame?
2. So what are your “crystals” telling you to feel about this?
3. So I see your yoga instructor is in the news again. I thought that girl was going to drop the charges?
4. Whoa! I guess I know who had beans and broccoli today! So does this count as part of your masters in “Aroma Therapy” dissertation?
5. Relax and breath! Did you forget how to swallow again?
Good questions Danny!
One question that I have used a lot in the course of a “discussion” with many liberals (or at least with people who self-identify as liberals) is
“Why do you engaged in personal attacks?”
That has almost always stopped them dead in their tracks. Perhaps, they don’t realize that they are doing it or they think that is proper form for a debate on issues!? I’m not sure why, but it seems to work.
Another question is to ask them to define XYZ, with XYZ being what they are saying. For example, in graduate school I had a classmate who was always remarking during one of her all-too-common rants about how she was a “bleeding-heart liberal” (her words, not mine) because she received a “liberal” education. So, I asked her what the meaning of a “liberal education” was; how did it differ from a “conservative education” (is there really such a thing?) She couldn’t answer. To my surprise, almost everyone else in the class (including the clueless teacher who had always let her rant away before) were surprised when I explained that the word liberal has several different meanings and that there was no real connection between liberal, as in politically liberal, and liberal as in Liberal Arts, Liberal Judaism, a liberal helping of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, etc. So, I don’t think I got that classmate to think (so much for an open-minded liberal, eh?) I do hope that I got some of the other classmates to think, or at least be more clear as to what they really meant to say.
Lastly, I think that one has always “pushed a button” when the response to “why do you say that?”is “well, it just is!”
I’ll be a little snarky here by focusing on Mike Castle, with questions for a GOP voter who supports him, instead of questions for the prototypical liberal.
Hypothetical comment from GOP Castle supporter: “That Christine McDonnell, she’s a total nutcase. She’s got issues out the wazzoo that’ll turn off too many voters. Besides, Delaware is a liberal state, so she can’t possibly win, being so conservative. Better half-a-loaf than none at all. And the winner gets seated IMMEDIATELY, Nov 3rd, unlike all the other races, so we need the GOP vote in there now. You’ve gotta vote for Castle.”
- Why should a conservative vote for Castle when he voted for 60% of Obama’s far-left agenda?
- So Castle would get seated immediately. He is an enthusiastic supporter of Obama and Pelosi’s Cap And Trade. It’s already passed the House. Castle will vote for it. Nothing during the lame duck session is more important than Cap And Trade. The guy is a Yes vote on that monstrosity. So tell me again, why vote for Castle?
- Castle will not vote to repeal ObamaCare. Did you notice that none of the Democrats mention ObamaCare in their ads? They’re fleeing from it. The GOP needs to urge repeal of ObamaCare, to make the Democrats delcare their support for it AGAIN. And I think they should make them declare for it more than once! Castle won’t let that happen. Conservatism is what will save this country, and Castle is going to block it on the ObamaCare repeal. He’ll block it on Cap And Trade. He’s going to block conservatism over and over again. Tell me again, why should any conservative vote for Castle?
Those are absolutely wonderful questions, Danny, since they very politely, in a non-confrontational way, ask the liberal to examine his own world view. Dennis Prager uses this technique to wonderful effect on his show (which, sadly, is not aired anymore in my neck of the woods). He always says, “I prefer clarity to agreement,” which is non-threatening to the person conversing with him. As the other person struggles to be clear, he often finds that his core values harmonize with Prager’s, but that his ideology doesn’t harmonize with his own values.
I can actually do this fairly well with a lot of people who are mere acquaintences. My liberal friend, however, is close enough to me that he pushes all my buttons so that my emotions and mouth engage before my brain does.
I freeze up in arguments, so anything that gives me time to collect my thoughts is good. One of my favorite tactics is the startled look, the one that says, “huh? do you realize you said something really strange and controversial?” It never fails to make them stop, blink, and start explaining.
What I’d like is a courteous response to someone with progressive politics who proudly announces they’re a centrist/libertarian/true moderate who can see all sides of a question, including the stupid side endorsed by those rage-filled haters on the right.
Kali, then try this: “Do you have any idea why there has been so much violence against the Tea Party instead of by the Tea Party?”
Thanks, Book. I struggle with not letting my emotions get ahead of my brain all the time. I really have to work hard sometimes not to say something unkind and demeaning or, even worse, to get into an attack mode and verbally skewer the opponent. I admit it is more personally satisfying but also self-destructive.
Danny,
I am a little amazed that I really haven’t thought about the question approach very much. That is not to say that I don’t ask liberals questions, it is just that I usually mix questions along with statements (in forums, for example). The problem with that is that in such a context, liberals simply ignore your questions ( or at least the difficult ones), and find something to quibble about. Or, they don’t actually answer your question, but claim to have answered it. So in forums, I think I’ll just focus on picking on individual liberals, focus on a single question, badger them til I get an answer and take it from there.
I’m a little surprised that I haven’t thought much about this. At work it is my standard operating procedure to ask many questions of people in order to be sure that I fully understand what they are trying to say. ‘Let me be sure I understand you, are you saying ….’? I think that making a liberal elaborate on their points and go into more detail is just going to provide a lot more ammunition for poking holes in their argument. Or perhaps even better, it makes them think harder about something that they’ve only considered at a superficial level. Maybe they’ll understand things better if they think a little harder, and hence, re-think some of their positions.
Years ago a liberal co-worker was doing a paper on international business or something. She asked me to proof it and offer comments. In it she was defending steel tariffs because of ‘unfair’ competition from Japan. It would save American jobs, she said. So I explained to her that this saving of American steel jobs would also raise the price of steel for all Americans, and all the industries that used steel would have higher costs and would have stiffer competition from foreign firms. We’d save steel jobs, but lose jobs in other industries, all the while, Americans would be paying higher prices for everything that used steel. She said ‘Wow, I never thought of that’. The point being that liberals simply haven’t thought through on a lot of things.
Although in my example, I didn’t really use the question technique, I think that can be a very, very effective means of getting a liberal to think their positions through a little more. And it has a major added virtue: you may get them to change their mind all on their own. That is so much less threatening than just explaining to them why they are wrong.
At work (I am an applications developer), if I think a user is wrong about something, I try to get them to come up with a better approach. I may toss out some hints, but I want them to come up with that better approach ‘on their own’. I’m told I am very good at this. So why haven’t I used this approach when dealing with liberals?
TommyC – you raise an interesting point about using questions to explore a subject more fully with your Liberal contender. Would you be more likely to hook them by saying, “That’s interesting! Could you help me think this through with you?”
Danny,
Of course some liberals are hopeless. However, many are more Democrat than liberal. I think that there are a lot of Democrats that are potential converts. For them, it may be easier to show them that conservatives are more likely to represent their views. Showing some sympathy with their point of view may help in these cases.
I remember years ago (in the 990′s), there was a survey. After the election, they asked people what their views were on a wide range of issues. And they asked them how they voted in various races. The surveyors matched the voters views to the candidates that came closest to those views. What they found was shocking – women were just a likely to vote for the candidate that did not reflect their views as the one that did. And men were only 10% more likely to vote for the candidate that best represented them. What this tells me is there there are a lot of people out there who can be persuaded to vote differently. We conservative had better do a better job persuading than the liberals.
Book, so it is not your husband? ; )
A lot of Democrats were raised in the faith and have known no other. The villager that thinks nothing else exists beyond the mountains, for neither they nor those they feel close to in life, have ever gone past them.