The Gish Gallop - 313

I listened to the Biden-Trump Debate on the radio. For ten years, scientists and climate activists, including me, have been writing to debate media hosts requesting they ask the hard questions on climate.

As a radio listener to the debate, I did not see either the President or the X-President. From listening, my impression was that Mr. Trump had decided he would ignore any question he did not care to answer by switching topics. While Mr. Trump was talking, I was continually asking myself, "I cannot keep up with all the statements. Are any of them true? How can anyone counter so many potential lies in the short time allotted?"

Unbeknownst to me, this debate style, one where you shoot out as many lines of nonsense as you can, has a name. Professor Heather Cox Richardson describes it well. "It went on and on, and that was the point. This was not a debate. It was Trump using a technique that actually has a formal name, the Gish gallop, although I suspect he comes by it naturally. It's a rhetorical technique in which someone throws out a fast string of lies, non-sequiturs, and specious arguments, so many that it is impossible to fact-check or rebut them in the amount of time it took to say them. Trying to figure out how to respond makes the opponent look confused, because they don't know where to start grappling with the flood that has just hit them."

As it turns out, many others had a hard time keeping up, including fact-checkers. CNN's Daniel Dale said Mr. Trump committed over 30 lies. President Biden had eight inflated numbers and exaggerations—or lies if you want to classify them as such. Mr. Dale did not keep track of the many times Donald Trump simply ignored the questions and rambled on about something else.

When it came to the one climate question, Donald Trump's response was, "Clean water and air. We had it. We had the H2O best numbers ever, and we were using all forms of energy during my four years. Best environmental numbers ever, they gave me the statistic, before I walked on stage actually."

Regarding our rapidly heating climate, it was a meaningless response. It was, though, an improvement from his standard practice of referring to global warming as a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I will give him credit for not using this racist slur hidden in a climate lie.

The day after the debate, I called a friend who shares the scientific community's opinion on our dire climate situation. He told me what he saw at the debate: President Biden looked awful. In general, this was the media's takeaway, too.  

Trump's evasions and lies were only a sidebar.

Here is how Heather Cox Richardson sums it up, "Of far more lasting importance than this one night is the clear evidence that stage performance has trumped substance in political coverage in our era."

I would like to add to her poignant observation. Climate scientists have dealt with the same cultural truth for the last two decades. In the USA, truth has been in a losing battle against media-savvy professional liars.

On the positive side, we do not have to fall for nonsense. Here is some advice on recognizing and dealing with the Gish Gallop:

During a Gish gallop, in a short space of time, the galloper confronts an opponent with a rapid series of specious arguments, half-truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies that make it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them within the format of the debate. Each point the Gish galloper raises takes considerably more time to refute or fact-check.  The technique wastes an opponent's time, casting doubt on the opponent's debating ability. It is effective if no independent fact-checking is involved or if the audience does not have the ability or motivation to fact-check on their own.

If confronted with the Gish Gallop, here is how to respond:

1. Call out to the strategy by saying, "Do not be fooled by the nonsense you just heard; it is called the Gish Gallop."
2. Take on the most ludicrous and easiest of gallops to contest and shred it.
3. Insist to the debate referee that you have the duty to confront all the nonsense spewed by the opponent, no matter the rules governing time constraints.

You may lose this challenge to the moderator, but you made your point.  The audience then must do their due diligence. Let them know they have the responsibility.

Note: The social media implementation of the Gish Gallop is well worth investigating. It is named the "Brandolini's Law," also known as the "Bullshit Asymmetry Principle."

Zeroing in on climate: If you are young and desire a benign future climate, Biden is your Champion. Reference Michigan Advance, "Presidential Election is seen as a climate turning point as CO2 hits record". 27Jun2024