(Please note: the following is much more a blatantly plagiarized adaptation of elsewhere-posted, well-known principles than an original composition, and forthrightly is acknowledged as such. That said, enjoy
)
- Make outrageous claims, but don't support them. Make other people prove them wrong.
- Keep repeating your claims. People will believe them eventually.
- If someone asks you specific questions about one of your claims, make up answers.
- When presented with evidence that contradicts your claims, trivialize it. Say, "ha ha! you only presented X pieces of evidence!" Hope they won't notice that you presented none.
- When caught in an error, redefine the English language to accommodate the error.
- Refuse to provide references for any claim unless at least 10 people ask for them.
- When producing your reference, assuming you have one, provide no link and only a vague citation with no page numbers or publisher information.
- By all means, do not transcribe the contents of a supporting reference on your own, even if it's only 2 sentences. Make others do your work for you. They probably won't bother.
- If somebody actually bothers to look up your reference, misrepresent it. Say it "implied" what you claimed, even if it claimed the opposite.
- When the chorus of challenges grows vigorous and/or voluminous, divert attention away from the challenges by whining about name-calling.
- Before complaining about name-calling, call your opponents names like "liar" and "history revisionist". "Bigot", "fascist", "nazi", "satanist", "atheist", "prejudiced", "close-minded", "deluded" and "ignorant" are among the list of useful favorites as well.
- Leave the discussion, come back a few months later, change the topic of discussion, and hope nobody remembers how you applied these techniques the last time you were there.
- Ignore people who provide particularly effective criticisms, so you do not have to deal with them and can plead ignorance about their comments.
- After avoiding a direct question once, with one of the above techniques, claim that you've "already answered that question" if anyone asks it again.
- In lieu of argument, refer readers to some obscure blog or website which somehow seems to support your proposition.
- When the going gets tough, start a new thread and reiterate your original assertion as fact. After a while, consolidate your threads and repeat.
- Go on (or pretend to go on) a vacation or trip. When you return, repeat all the same assertions as fact. Forget or ignore all the criticisms that were made before you left.
- When somebody asks you, weeks later, for evidence of an earlier claim, say "I already dealt with that in an earlier post.", without, of course, providing any link to same.
- Write a hit-and-run post. Claim to have disproved all your opponents' arguments and then refuse to answer anymore relevant questions or challenges.
- If someone disagrees with you, use the "Philosophy 101" argument from authority. Pretend all great philosophers and scientists have endorsed your argument, even though only a statistically insignificant number - if any - have.
- Call your opponents biased against Christianity. If someone disagrees with you, then that person obviously hates Christians.
- If absolutely, irrevocably proven wrong on some fundamental point, claim that said point was actually "minor".
- Quote your opponent out of context so it appears that he's actually agreeing with you, even though he's actually shattered your argument.
- Misquote your opponent to make it appear your opponent inadvertantly has validated your point or refuted his own proposition.
- And finally, most importantly, NEVER SO MUCH AS ACKNOWLEDGE, LET ALONE BE INTIMIDATED BY LOGIC, REASON, OR ACTUAL EVIDENCE CONTRARY TO YOUR PROPOSITION!
(With acknowledgement, thanks, and apologies to
Brett Vickers)
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