Today’s Bunker Logic and Reason Lesson is on a tactic I call TWITTERPLYING. It is a form of insta-replying to any outrage with a manufactured false comparison and implied hypocrisy that will automatically satisfy a large segment of any hyper-activist audience and excuse any behavior.
Are y’all ready? Let’s go!
TWITTERPLYING is the use of a few logic fallacies together, but in a rapid response way, that provides an “apologetic” for any normally inexcusable or outrageous behavior. Most often it is a way of dismissing a trending outrage or insulting a large audience that has grasped on to some outrage, and it provides a response to something in the news or the zeitgeist that needs to be dismissed.
By “apologetic” here I mean: “Serving to excuse or explain an event, opinion, or behavior. Containing a formal justification or defense for something.”
TWITTERPLYING is a rapid response tactic that provides an empty or contentless, fallacious, apologetic that will be easily received and repeated by stupid people. And it is a tactic used by almost all sides in social media.
Example: (In this example, a politician – we’ll call him Braden Frump – has snatched a baby from a mom in the crowd and tossed it at a heckler. Social Media has exploded with outrage and #babytosser is trending)
TWITTERPLYER: “Imagine being outraged at a simple #babytosser while Dempublicrats have been killing babies for decades and YOU SAID NOTHING.
“TWITTERPLYER: “Oh, you toss one baby and Dempublicrats lose their minds, but a month ago they voted against a bill that would save billions of babies from poverty.”
So, you can see that the Twitterply proceeds this way. 1. Diminish the outrageous act by dismissing it. 2. Make a false comparison. 3. Make a charge of hypocrisy based on the previous fallacies. Quite often these start with a word like “Imagine”.
So, let’s do another example.
Example: (Walmart in Canada has implemented V@cks passports, so you can’t buy groceries if you aren’t j@bbed)
TWITTERPLYER: “Imagine not caring when Walmart starves their workers to death with a laughable minimum wage, but being butthurt and boycotting Walmart because they won’t let you in with the plague.”
TWITTERPLYER: “Anti-v@ckers are fine with killing grandmas but are pissed at Walmart for giving granny a safe place to buy apples.”
Ok, so this tactic isn’t limited to Twitter. It’s now a default way to get a very rapid response out to any behavior. And you never have to admit your side or your candidate or your hero did something wrong. Just follow the steps: 1. diminish the behavior, 2. false equivalency, 3. hypocrisy charge. Blend those however you like in any order and you have an apologetic ready to go as a soundbite and 75% of your friends will applaud it.
Thanks for tuning in!
Michael
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