Fugato

Hugh Macleod draws and writes stuff. I like most of his drawings; he has a knack for nailing stereotypes, banalities, despair, hubris, etc. I like much of his writing too … but I don’t like how he tends to embellish it with exercises in “proof by intimidation.” Examples:

It’s all about being utterly fucked if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Somebody tell me, what’s so hard about that? How come people don’t get it? Seriously, I want to know.

It’s so frickin’ obvious.

Like I’ve said before… it’s so frickin’ obvious.

(Sorry, Hugh, for using you as the example here. I’m sure you’re a good guy ‘n’ all. But you do have the top two Google hits for so frickin’ obvious. You’re kinda fair game.)

Proof by intimidation is one of the various ways of arguing your point irrespective of the value or truthfulness of that point. It is the act of implying to people, by sheer force of self-confidence or arrogance, that they’d better agree with you or else they’ll risk exposing themselves as stupid by “not getting it,” because after all, “it’s so frickin’ obvious.”

People who use proof by intimidation are not necessarily mistaken or lying. They may just be really sure of themselves and get a kick out of showing it. Or they might even see some kind of practical utility in tactically defusing their readers’/audiences’ critical thinking. Maybe just to grab attention, so that a mind is more open to their point; “ploughing the field,” which is just fine if they then plant decent seed in it.

But when you notice this tactic, it sure undermines their credibility. Raises alarms in my head: “Bullshit alert! Somebody find me a devil’s advocate, quick!”

And I suspect most of the time I don’t notice it … so it works like a charm. Bogus ideas get inserted in my head and become familiar, trusted thoughts. I bet a lot of our prejudices get planted this way.

Note to self: don’t do this.

Second note to self: blog about this, so that people have something to nail you with if you do do this. :)

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 24th, 2004 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.