Sunday October 9th represented Canadian Thanksgiving. I, along with many other of my fellow Canadians, gleefully stuffed myself full of turkey and pie, then settled down for a spectacular evening of sport.
Mud was slung, invective was hurled. Tactics were tried and plays made, as calculated discipline on one side and flailing onslaught on the other.
Oh yeah, and apparently the Blue Jays played a spectacular game.
But back to the 2nd Presidential Debate:
In the Pop-Up Rhetoric video for debate #1 on September 29th, we looked at some attack strategies. This time around we’re looking at defense and retaliation.
Rebuttal is a core part of debate. How well you can respond to barbs, defend your arguments, and spin attacks back towards your opponents has a huge impact on a debator’s supremacy.
While a lot of the arguing that was going on was bereft of any real substance or content, there were definitely rebuttals! And in this edition of Pop-Up Rhetoric, we’re going to look at a couple key devices used in the fine (but not necessarily subtle) art of rebuttal:
