How to Win a Debate With a Bully (like Drumpf the Scumbag)

[BlueWavePsych]

The challenge for Biden isn’t simply that he’ll be facing a bully on the debate stage in Cleveland on Tuesday; it’s that he’ll be facing a man who is shameless and without conscience, a shatterer of norms and boundaries, a liar of epic proportions, a conspiracy-monger who inhabits an alternate reality. President Donald Trump operates outside any normal parameters.

A second thing Biden can do is put Trump’s words within a larger context. For example, the president is a profligate liar; we know that in the course of the debates the president will tell an avalanche of falsehoods. It might therefore be useful for Biden, early in the debate, to warn viewers what will happen—Trump will lie, and lie again, and lie again. The former vice president should put a frame around those claims, so people understand what’s happening in real time.

When it’s his turn to respond to a comment by Trump, the former vice president should confidently name each strategy Trump attempted—“That was a deflection … That was a hoax … That was scapegoating … We’re at the 66th floor again.” By quickly and succinctly answering any question after naming the strategy, Biden will appear controlled, reasonable, and intelligent; Trump will feel dismissed and mocked. This will enrage the president, especially if his attempts to engage in argument are ignored, and Biden refuses to look at him.

Beyond that, as one clinical psychologist I consulted for this piece suggested, Biden should simply name what is true and what most Americans intuit about the president: He is a terribly broken man. Money and privilege spared him from the consequences that might have helped him develop a conscience. He does not show remorse or guilt, because he does not feel it. Decency and honesty yield no reward for Trump; indecency and lying yield no consequences. He doesn’t apologize to others, because he doesn’t feel the pain of others. He does not have the capacity for empathy and authentic relationships; all his relationships are conditional. He knows only pleasure and pity for himself. He perseverates on the wounds to his ego. Telling the truth, when it’s not Trump’s truth, is viewed as a betrayal by the president, because he always places his interests above truth.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/how-debate-bully/616461/

I look forward to Biden trouncing Drumpf.

[Midnightwalk]

1. Perseverate

repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.

Good article and I learned a new word. Thanks.

[marble falls]

2. How about Joe learning to shake his head and say with a little chuckle, "There you go again"?

[frazzled]

3. "How to Debate Someone Who Lies: Truth sandwiches, ridicule, and other tactics for Joe Biden

when he faces President Trump." I like this one better, written by a professor of clinicial psychology. Short clips with details at link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/opinion/debate-trump-biden-lie.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

As a psychiatrist, I’d like to offer Mr. Biden some advice: Don’t waste your time fact-checking the president. If you attempt to counter every falsehood or distortion that Mr. Trump serves up, you will cede control of the debate. And, by trying to correct him, you will paradoxically strengthen the misinformation rather than undermine it. (Research shows that trying to correct a falsehood with truth can backfire by reinforcing the original lie. )

Instead, Mr. Biden should use more powerful weapons that will put Mr. Trump on the defensive — and also tell the audience that the president is a dishonest narrator.

The first weapon maybe the most effective: humor and ridicule. ...

Some of the president’s lies are not served by humor; Mr. Biden will have to confront them head-on, like the president’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. ... The cognitive scientist George Lakoff, who studies propaganda, calls this a “truth sandwich” — a lie gets sandwiched between true statements. Research shows it effectively corrects a falsehood, because people tend to remember the beginning and end of a statement, rather than what’s in the middle.

[aquamarina]

4. I'm a huge fan of mocking.

I find that the thing they can't take the most is making fun of them.

[TheRealNorth]

5. Humor I think is the best tactic

for instance, if Trump makes claims credit for the Covid vaccine, Biden's comeback should be, "next, he is going to claim he invented the internet".

[MurrayDelph]

6. But he should also be ready to answer

"My turn now. You wait" when Trump interrupts.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. IMHO, I don't think Mr. Biden should waste his time debating the POS in the WH, mainly because

none of us will gain a damn thing from the debate, other than to reconfirm Mr. Biden's total competence for the job, vs. trump's total incompetence at the job he's done, over the last 3.5 years, while in the WH.

Mr. Biden, per his debate w/ Paul Ryan, will easily handle trump. So, if trump still hangs around for any of the debates (I think trump will cowardly figure out a way to get out of the debates), trump will be made a laughing stock as he so richly deserves.