Lakoff
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2006There's been some discussion about the flareup between Lakoff and Pinker. I'm not even going to comment on the cognitive science issues: we have bonafide experts around these parts to do that. But I have had considerable experience debating conservatives, and I have personally found most of what Lakoff writes to be pretty useless in any practical, working sense. Why?
Because the best debating technique is relying on ethos (either yours or someone you're quoting). For example, Rep. Harold Ford did that to innoculate himself against charges that he frolicked with Playboy bunnies. His…
mikethemadbiologist | July 8, 2006While I'm not the world's biggest fan of George Lakoff, he has published two posts that are worth reading. The first, co-authored by Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger, and Sam Ferguson, argues that the "Bush is incompetent" theme is a losing strategy (coturnix has additional commentary on this post):
The mantra of incompetence has been an unfortunate one. The incompetence frame assumes that there was a sound plan, and that the trouble has been in the execution. It turns public debate into a referendum on Bush's management capabilities, and deflects a critique of the impact of his guiding philosophy. It…