Shakedown Social

Ben Royce 🇺🇦One of the side effects of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/gishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#gishGallop</a> of endless hate and outrageous stupidity is that it obscures the abuses of yesterday, yet they continue, while outrage and attention shiftsExample:the sadistic attack on <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/womensRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#womensRights</a>"Two <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Houston" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Houston</a>-area clinic employees arrested for allegedly providing illegal <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/abortion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#abortion</a> s"We must confront the totality of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/plutocrat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#plutocrat</a>-<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/bigot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#bigot</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/political" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#political</a> axis in the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/USA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USA</a> and not be endlessly distracted<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/17/texas-abortion-midwife-arrested/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/17/texas-abortion-midwife-arrested/</a>

Peter Kisner ≈<a href="https://mstdn.social/@lowqualityfacts" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@lowqualityfacts</a> If a multi-classed wizard-fighter casts Phantom Steed (or the Mount spell in previous editions) and rides at full speed, does that count as a Gish Gallop?<a href="https://dice.camp/tags/DnD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DnD</a> <a href="https://dice.camp/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Humor</a> <a href="https://dice.camp/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>

Kent PitmanFor those who don't know it, the Gish Gallop, which I used as a metaphor in the post above, has a Wikipedia page, which describes it this way:"The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, with no regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper's arguments at the expense of their quality. "My use was re-purposing it from the debate stage to the modern legal landscape (and now, using this technique, battlefield).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop</a><a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>

Kent PitmanA few hours ago, <a href="https://press.coop/@nytimes" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@nytimes</a> wrote:«"It is very clear that, if there is a middle of all of this hot mess of division, Americans want us to work together when we can and find common ground," Sen. Amy Klobuchar tells the Opinion writer Michelle Cottle.»I'm going to pray that they've been sitting on that quote for weeks and that it's not the evidence of dangerous cluelessness by Klobuchar that it appears to be.I think Americans want first for Congress to save Democracy, Amy. Because control of the public's attention is easily manipulated in social media, they may not realize it's in mortal danger, but it's Congress' job to know that fact. If they, Democrats and Republicans alike, aren't describing it as a full-on assault on the Constitution, a coup, a sudden & complete dismantling of Democracy via a prior published & detailed plan, then they aren't solving the right problem and show no evidence of paying attention.Even 4 years ago, on January 6, it wasn't "business as usual". We needed Congress on that day to continue a Constitutional government but NOT to hear budget debates and such mundane legislative things. We knew we were UNDER ATTACK.This, now, today, is an ESCALATION OF THAT ATTACK, and she's talking like she wants to ignore it, treating this as an ordinary work day. Work together by IMPEACHING maybe, but nothing less. Do not underestimate the seriousness and urgency of what's going on. Do not get distracted.If Congressfolk don't see this as an escalation, maybe because it's a "white collar" attack not (yet) involving guns, they can't respond properly. They must stop talking about this as something to legislate their way out of. We in the US are under a real time administrative assault. Stop taking weekends & holidays. This is not a schedulable event. They are preying on your willingness to pretend it can have a leisurely pace.Congress has long been soft on white collar crime, treating it as a privilege of the elite, the donor class. Perhaps it's become invisible to them, even as it's far more sweeping and hurtful than much street crime. Maybe a white collar coup is then likewise invisible. We need them to wake up and SEE.This time they're using ID cards to get into buildings they're taking over, but there's more to Constitutional government than right of entry. The Constitution spells out limits on power. They're violating limits so fast they can't all be checked fast enough. A Gish gallop assault on policy & power.Sadly, I predicted this crisis on the ex-bird site Oct 13, 2016 (before 2016 vote). Talking Points Memo (TPM) had cited USA Today on Trump's propensity for legal challenges. I expected the same with Constitutional challenges. Just as happened. Our system barely handles a few challenges a year, not thousands.<a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/USPolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USPolitics</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#politics</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/USCongress" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USCongress</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Congress" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Congress</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#democracy</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/coup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#coup</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/TrumpCoup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#TrumpCoup</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#fascism</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#authoritarianism</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/attack" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#attack</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/assault" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#assault</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Jan6" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Jan6</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/SCOTUS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SCOTUS</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Constitution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Constitution</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Lawless" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Lawless</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Project2025" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Project2025</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/TPM" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#TPM</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Klobuchar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Klobuchar</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/Senate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Senate</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/WhiteCollarCrime" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#WhiteCollarCrime</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/WhiteCollarCoup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#WhiteCollarCoup</a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a> (This post is an expanded form of a thread I just posted to BlueSky.)

Martin Nutty204) Speaking of lie velocity ⬆️, <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/NPR" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#NPR</a> gives some sense of just how challenging it is to keep up with <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Trump</a> fact free zoneHere’s their take on 162 lies and distortions floating out of. <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/BigOrange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#BigOrange</a>’s mouth at <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/MarALago" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MarALago</a> last week. Can anybody say <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>?Each assertion presents an opportunity for the <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/NewsMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#NewsMedia</a> to call BS on <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/DonaldTrump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DonaldTrump</a>, but how often do you see that?<a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5070566/trump-news-conference" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5070566/trump-news-conference</a><a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/Election2024" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Election2024</a> <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USPol</a> <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/USPolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USPolitics</a> <a href="https://mastodon.ie/tags/Politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Politics</a>

Peter GleickYes, the NABJ interview with Trump showed what a disaster he is, but a word of warning to everyone interviewing him (or trying to debate him): he will talk over you, loudly, and drown you out with nonsense when you try to call him out on lies, errors, misstatements, or failure to answer a question.It's called Gish Galloping or "spreading" and it's hard to overcome. <a href="https://fediscience.org/tags/gishgallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#gishgallop</a>

Ramesh #NotGoingBack⬆️ <a href="https://universeodon.com/@JoePeeters" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@JoePeeters</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/@Nonilex" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@Nonilex</a> <a href="https://mefi.social/@MissConstrue" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@MissConstrue</a> <a href="https://toot.community/@snork303" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@snork303</a> >> She is running for President, not prosecutor, her experience as one though will show Trump lacking the qualities required to hold such high office! Fight fire with fire!Yes, I know and I understand she's running for president.The tone I mentioned is rhetorical, not to be taken literally.You wan't entertainment. I want a leader. I don't think it is proper to elevate a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/convictedFelon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#convictedFelon</a> and dignify his <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>.We can agree to disagree 🙂

Ramesh #NotGoingBack⬆️ <a href="https://mastodon.world/@TruthSeeker54" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@TruthSeeker54</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/@distantreplay" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@distantreplay</a> <a href="https://mstdn.social/@GreenFire" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@GreenFire</a> Everybody EXCEPT the media saw <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Trump</a>'s <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>. That's not what the editorial is about. We also saw something different in <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Biden" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Biden</a>'s performance that we'd never seen before. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Democratic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Democratic</a> Party leadership also saw it. That's why there was so much discussion.Whatever the reason (cold medication, adversarial attack using ultrasonic weapons, …), the point is that it better not be irrational exuberance. Party leadership has assured us that it isn't.

David August ❌👑h/t <a href="https://mastodon.online/@MarkRedfield" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@MarkRedfield</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/debate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#debate</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/presidential" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#presidential</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/election" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#election</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#politics</a> <a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/USpol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USpol</a>

ShoqTrump is now in perfect <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a> mode.

Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️‍⚧️♾️🇺🇦Given the trash from Pamela Paul in the NY Times the other day, it's worth upping this again. From <a href="https://mastodon.social/@juliaserano" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@juliaserano</a> *last May*, debunking Paul's word salad months before it was written.Note how none of these meticulous examinations of the science ever make it into the NY Times.Also, you should all follow Julia.Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth Is Neither New nor Experimental: A Timeline and Compilation of Studies <a href="https://juliaserano.medium.com/gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth-is-neither-new-nor-experimental-a-timeline-and-compilation-b4bb8375d797" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://juliaserano.medium.com/gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth-is-neither-new-nor-experimental-a-timeline-and-compilation-b4bb8375d797</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/transphobia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#transphobia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/pseudoscience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#pseudoscience</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/science" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#science</a>

Kid Mania<a href="https://mastodon.social/@66gardeners" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@66gardeners</a> <a href="https://c.im/@cdarwin" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@cdarwin</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/gishgalloping" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#gishgalloping</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/sometimesyagottagish" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#sometimesyagottagish</a> ☠️ <a href="https://effectiviology.com/gish-gallop/#Responding_to_arguments_within_a_Gish_gallop" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://effectiviology.com/gish-gallop/#Responding_to_arguments_within_a_Gish_gallop</a>

66gardeners<a href="https://c.im/@cdarwin" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@cdarwin</a> What is <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>

Mastodon Migration<a href="https://mastodon.online/@spocko" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@spocko</a> Trump perfected the "gish gallop" and now it is GOP standard practice."The Gish gallop (/ˈɡɪʃ ˈɡæləp/) is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments."<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop</a>Basically, people are just overwhelmed by falsehoods and nonsense and stop listening, and supporters eat it up because, 'owning the libs.'<a href="https://mastodon.online/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>

FeralRobots<a href="https://wandering.shop/@cstross" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@cstross</a> <a href="https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@davidgerard</a> Reminds me of <a href="https://toot.cafe/@aardrian" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@aardrian</a> the other day comparing ChatGPT technical answers to a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>. <a href="https://toot.cafe/@aardrian/110860089522300483" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://toot.cafe/@aardrian/110860089522300483</a>

edgeoforever 🍎Opinion: Why no one should debate Trump or RFK Jr. - Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-19/donald-trump-robert-kennedy-jr-debate-gish-gallop" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-19/donald-trump-robert-kennedy-jr-debate-gish-gallop</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/uspolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#uspolitics</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>

Crooks&LiarsI do believe that @SenRonJohnson spun himself into the ground with this <a href="https://crooklyn.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>.<a href="https://crooksandliars.com/2023/06/rojo-rewrites-history-effort-exonerate?utm_source=social&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_content=75733" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://crooksandliars.com/2023/06/rojo-rewrites-history-effort-exonerate?utm_source=social&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_content=75733</a>

FeralRobots<a href="https://mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@rebeccawatson</a> y'know now that I think back on it, most of Taibbi's stuff looks a lot like a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>. Even the "good" stuff like 'Vampire Squid'* was mostly just eloquent rants without anywhere near as much substance as they signaled. _ *which was of course wildly unfair to vampire squids.

FeralRobots"The Twitter Files are really just a microblogged Gish Gallop, in which a person lists off so many half-truths and misrepresentations that their opponent would require an order of magnitude more time and energy to refute."(Come to think of it <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/MattTaibbi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MattTaibbi</a>'s career output is largely exercises in <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>-ing, so I think she's onto something.)<a href="https://skepchick.org/2023/04/elon-musk-matt-taibbi-attack-the-science-of-misinformation/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://skepchick.org/2023/04/elon-musk-matt-taibbi-attack-the-science-of-misinformation/</a> [h/t <a href="https://mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson/110220762873958609" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson/110220762873958609</a>]

Shoq<a href="https://law-and-politics.online/@Teri_Kanefield" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@Teri_Kanefield</a> "Liars can throw out lies rapid fire. Fact checking each one takes time."Ayep, and as you probably know but your readers may not, Eugenie Scott coined a great label for this infamous creationist's tactic back in the '90s. The "<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/GishGallop" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GishGallop</a>"<a href="https://nitter.net/Shoq/status/823200057071648772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://nitter.net/Shoq/status/823200057071648772</a>

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