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Conservapedia:Schlafly Reversal
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The Schlafly Reversal is a debating tactic used to extricate oneself from an unwinnable position, or as a way of summarily dismissing damaging statistics or logic. This tactic is dependent on allowing the opponent (who must be a Liberal for the Reversal to be effective) to put forth some form of "factual" argument using some variety of "statistic" or "science" which may be damaging to your own position. In the event that the opponent is not a Liberal, or if their political orientation is unknown, a simple randomly generated statistic "proving" the individual's "Liberalness" can be employed. For instance: "I do know, with 95% certainty, what your positions are on classroom prayer and evolution."--Aschlafly 10:26, 25 May 2007 (EDT) For help in fabricating the appropriate statistic see Conservapedia:Schlafly Statistics. Hence, the opponent is now officially a Liberal.
At this time, the Schlafly Reversal is best used with the following phrases:
- "Many liberals don't mind being deceitful and I don't waste time debating them.".--Aschlafly 14:24, 27 May 2007 (EDT)
- "Remember, some liberals don't mind being deceitful, and all of us end up relying on things that are not true because of it." :-) --Aschlafly 13:40, 27 May 2007 (EDT)
- "It's another liberal falsehood. I don't expect that falsehood to bother liberals, but it will matter to everyone else. It's going into the growing list of liberal deceit."--Aschlafly 16:53, 27 May 2007 (EDT)
- "Remember, liberals don't mind being deceitful. We all get fooled by that, and that is why it is essential to track down the basis for a liberal claim before repeating it. God help all of us." :-) --Aschlafly 14:07, 27 May 2007 (EDT
- "...liberals crave attention and don't mind being deceitful."--Aschlafly 11:25, 25 May 2007 (EDT)
Note the use of the :-) to emphasize the non-threatening quality of your statements while at the same time exhibiting our own smugness.
The Reversal can even be used in the political arena:
- "Democratic Senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden is listed on famousplagiarists.com for his widely publicized copying from British liberal Neil Kinnock and then pawning it off as his own, and then initially denying he had done anything wrong. This was not the first time Biden had plagiarized. The resultant exposure of his unacknowledged appropriation of Kinnock's work forced Biden out of the 1988 presidential race,[8] but he's back running in 2008 and liberals do not seem to mind his prior deceit one bit."
In the hands of an expert the Reversal can be used to even change history:
- "Freud is taught to high school and college students without any admission of his deceit."--Aschlafly 21:17, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
- "The insistence on liberals describing Franklin as a deist continues to amaze me. I'll bet the correlation between those who insist Franklin was a deist and liberals is nearly 100%. It doesn't matter if the claim is made by a scholar or a student. Liberals want Franklin to have been a deist, even though Franklin himself implicitly rejected that label and prayed for divine intervention, something deists rejected."--Aschlafly 12:22, 24 May 2007 (EDT)
A variant of the Schlafly Reversal was observed on 21 May 2007 when an opponent's lengthy counterargument was itself turned into a proof for one's own position:
- "Whew!!!! You protest far too much in denying that that prosecution today by Germany of homeschoolers (hundreds of them) is a remnant of Nazi Germany. You protest far too much in denying that free speech is not fully allowed in Germany. [...] It's amazing how much effort you put into denying that the prosecution of homeschoolers is from that era, when numerous American articles confirm that it was." --Aschlafly 14:31, 21 May 2007 (EDT)
- "You're not fooling anyone. There are remnants of totalitarianism still existing in Germany, and your defense of it illustrates the continuing problem. Thank you for your postings because others would have doubted that people defend jailing homeschoolers." --Aschlafly 18:10, 21 May 2007 (EDT)
It should be noted that using the Reversal can lead to undesired consequences. Wily Liberal opponents may even try to use the Reversal against you. In the event that this happens the following defense is effective against the Reversal (but only for Conservatives, Republicans, and politicians):
- "Sure, some deceits are justified, just as self-defense can justify killing in rare circumstances."--Aschlafly 18:24, 14 May 2007 (EDT)
In the even more unlikely event that the Reversal does not work, your only recourse is to retreat. The first step is to throw your opponent off somehow, an effective way of doing this is by a lame attack on his or her user name:
- ""John", which I don't think is even your real name,"--Aschlafly 17:16, 27 May 2007 (EDT)
Quickly followed by:
- "Don't post to my talk page and don't try to engage me in debate unless you abide by simple rules that avoid falsehoods, and that correct them promptly when made. Thank you."--Aschlafly 17:16, 27 May 2007 (EDT)
- "I know liberals insist on having the last word. But this is my talk page, and the last word will be mine. Don't post here again on this issue. Thank you and Godspeed."--Aschlafly 14:08, 25 May 2007 (EDT)
The Ancient Mayans predicted the world would come to an end on December 21, 2012.Do You Believe That? Many leading historians predict this will occur if and when Andy combines the Schlafly and Russian Reversals, resulting in a split in the space-time continuum and reversing gravity itself. An example of such might be "Andy, why is the evolution article locked?" "In (liberal) Soviet Russia, article request to unlock YOU!!"
Hopefully your new understanding of the Schlafly Reversal will make you unbeatable in any argument or debate you are engaged in, no matter how bad your position or understanding of the topic may be. Remember, the following logic always works:
Agree with aschlafly → You are correct → Therefore, I am correct.
Disagree with aschlafly → You must be a liberal! Gosh! <insert random statistic proving you are a liberal> → Liberals exhibit deceit. → You are lying. → Therefore, I am correct.
See, you are always correct when you use the Schlafly Reversal (not to be confused with Reverse Cowgirl).
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Schopenhauer, Arthur: The Art of Controversy, English translation by T. Bailey Saunders
- How To Think Like a Fundamentalist The site is now defunct but the article is preserved at the Internet Archive.