Basics:

Answering something other than the question,

Either making something up that they want to answer instead or going back to an easier to answer question. Or back to a question that lets them repeat a talking point

Common phrases:

- "to go back to your previous question"

- "to take a step back a bit"

- "if we look at the bigger picture"

- "this feels like a question about [thing the question isn't about]"

- "you raise an important question more generally" → turn the question into one which you more want to answer

Make it feel like you answered a question without answering it.

Examples

Done for comedic effect: https://youtu.be/fhEakqJJUng?si=GBEvYBXcaEsb6F2_

How this works:

Questions, especially ones people care a lot about, tend to have two main components:

- the request for information

- the emotion which makes then want that information

When someone doesn't want to tell you some information, but also doesn't want to tell you 'I won't tell you', something they can do is detect what kind of emotion is driving your question, or if it's in front of an audience, what kind of emotion is driving the audience's interest in that question and address that emotion in way that leaves people satisfied (or something close to that, for long enough to not have that collective emotion as one thing directed at them anymore, or anytime soon) without actually giving or coming close to giving the actual information that was requested.

Examples of people to look at who do this:

Lobbyists, CEOs, Comedians, certain lawyers, skilled marketers, some 'therapists'

Video Examples:

Low skill, explained by commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmbDczK-78&pp=ygUlbG91aXMgcm9zc21hbm4gbG9iYnlpc3QgY2hhcmxpZSBicm93bg%3D%3D

Low to mediocre skill:

https://youtu.be/oZNvoN0u_DU?si=F73d2xNNBkkMXNcK

Mediocre skill: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/lW_eq3yFNT0

Same average technique, but done to extreme levels of polish: https://x.com/KKumar_ai_plans/status/1665479141267734529

The Defense

So, if you've been through the above material without confirmation bias, or with good awareness of your own confirmation bias and precise, accurate compensation for your confirmation bias, you will likely now be asking or thinking of ideas for "How Do I Defend Against This?"

I will tell you.

There are many variations of this defense and how to implement it - but the fundamental comes down to: Notice you have not recei...

Defense Against The Deceptive Arts

Defense Against The Deceptive Arts