“This multitude see the comic side of a thousand low- grade and trivial things—broad incongruities, mainly; grotesqueries, absurdities, evokers of the horse-laugh. The ten thousand high-grade comicalities which exist in the world are sealed from their dull vision. Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them—and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon — laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution — these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Do you ever use that one? No; you leave it lying rusting. As a race, do you ever use it at all? No; you lack sense and the courage,” – Satan, in Mark Twain’s “The Mysterious Stranger.”
Found at Sullivan’s place. Joe Huffman’s often mentioned a good way to attack gun bigots is to make them look like fools. This quote made me think of that.
It’s very effective if you can get people laughing at your opponent. That way, you can avoid engaging with what he’s actually saying.
I understand when Jon Stewart or the NYT think that’s their only safe course in a debate. I’m not so sympathetic when I hear the same thinking from adults.
It’s also telling when Jon Stewart refuses to direct that ray-gun at Obama or even ACORN – knowing it might bounce-back and he could disappear…
Bill Maher does that constantly, as does Letterman. It’s one more reason for me not to watch them.
There is often a difference between getting your opponent laughed at making them look like fools.
You can make them look like a fool because they can’t answer Just One Question. You can get them laughed at because they used the wrong word or did something silly in the heat of a debate or when they had a microphone shoved in their face.
Give them credit and treat them with respect for having an occasional brain fart but give them hell for not having the data and/or logic to support their position even when given an opportunity to properly research the problem.