The debating term for Donald Trump’s favorite rhetorical technique, if he can be said to have anything so conscious as a “technique”, is “Gish gallop”. It involves taking advantage of the limited processing power of the human brain by overwhelming it with a fast-paced torrent of claims, without regard for the accuracy or even arguability of those claims.
To give you a brief history, the Gish gallop is named after Duane Gish, a creationist known to blather on for hours at a time, making it difficult for scientists to refute him due to the sheer volume of “content” he produces during debates. Sound familiar? It’s a difficult technique to defend against, but it can be done.
So what does this have to do with the June 27 presidential debate specifically? It might surprise you to hear that debate experts don’t recommend trying to refute every lie a Gish galloper tells. This makes you look reactive and risks drowning out your own, better-reasoned arguments. The defense recommended by most is called thematic rebuttal. Here’s a definition pulled from an article written by a Cambridge researcher:
A thematic rebuttal consists of identifying the main theme (or themes) of your opponent’s arguments, and arguing against that, instead of focusing on their individual arguments. This method is relatively effective, since it allows you to address the core of your opponent’s arguments, while at the same time taking away the advantage that the Gish galloper gets from being able to use multiple weak arguments.
effectiviology.com/...
This information could help explain the results of polls showing nobody “won” this debate. Political junkies like your average Daily Kos reader might have been angered by President Biden’s refusal to address all of Trump’s lies because they already know they’re lies, but debate theory suggests Biden made the right choice for general viewers.
Of course, only time will tell if his strategy actually worked for the low-information voter. For now, we can take comfort in the knowledge that it was likely at least a well-researched and much-considered choice.