How to Debate Someone Who Lies

[brooklynite]

New York Times

When Joe Biden debates President Trump on Tuesday, he will have to figure out how to parry with an opponent who habitually lies and doesn’t play by the rules.

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 may be the most effective: humor and ridicule. A derisive joke can defuse tense and outrageous situations. In 2007, for example, protesters dressed as clowns confronted a “white power” march in Charlotte, N.C., holding signs that read “wife power” and throwing white flour in the air. It made the white nationalists look ridiculous and avoided a violent confrontation, which would have served the interests of the racists.

[Mike 03]

1. The author makes a great point:

Mr. Biden will have another advantage during the debate: President Trump will not have a live audience to excite him and satisfy his insatiable need for approval and attention, which means he will be even more vulnerable to a takedown.

[enough]

2. Also, "There you go again" should come in handy. NT

[lunatica]

3. He shouldn't personally fact check Trump, but what about the moderators?

The heart of our problem with Trump is not that he lies. It’s that he gets away with his lies.

If both of them are asked the same question there is no need For Biden to fact check Trump. The answers from Biden will be full of facts And dates and corroboration in his answers. Trump will be doing his usual generalizations with zero substantiation. If the moderators simply ask a Trump to give examples of his claims and assertions Trump will do his usual dissimulation but it will be very obvious that he doesn’t have anything to back him up.

For Biden simply responding the way he always does will do it. Trump will find himself on the defensive, but the moderators have to do their work, not giving any passes on anything. The strategy has to be real and it has to be based on facts. You know, like it’s meant to be. No soft ball questions should be the rule.

[lindysalsagal]

4. All he needs to do is be his usual, wonderful, caring sane, self.

I'd like to see Biden place a fact checker in the audience and occasionally ask him/her for the inaccuracy tally. Just site the number and then make his own point.

[StClone]

5. Take away:Put Tee* on the defensive and use jokes and humor--Good stuff

*Tee as in golf tee, as that is all he does-golf. And even at that he cheats.