Mehdi Hasan’s debates tend to go viral, like those against John Bolton, Erik Prince, or a Saudi ambassador. Hasan wipes the floor during debates and interviews. But it’s not an easy process; as Hasan says, it requires a lot of preparation. In “Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking,” Hasan outlines the best ways to win debates against all sorts of opponents.
Mehdi Hasan says he has been arguing all his life, and he’s made a career of it as a formidable interviewer known for challenging presidents and prime ministers on his MSNBC and Al Jazeera news programs. To him, a good-faith debate is not only the “lifeblood of democracy” but it’s also fun, and he wants us all to learn the craft.
In this excerpt from his new book Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, MSNBC host and lifelong debater Mehdi Hasan makes the case for ad hominems.
“I also think there’s a cultural thing and it doesn’t reflect well on us as Brits. We’re blunter, we’re ruder, weirdly we’re less stuck on etiquette. We’re the ones supposed to be the stiff upper lip; actually, no. There is an American political culture which is: that’s too rude, don’t go there, that’s seen as crossing a line. Some of those conventions need to be broken.”
“Hasan offers an entertaining primer on rhetorical techniques, including what Aristotle called appeals to logos (reason), pathos (emotion) and ethos (authority). Logos is the basic stuff of argument: Present the facts and draw connections between them. But it would be a pretty fantasy to think that the facts can speak for themselves: “The reality is that pathos beats logos almost every time.”
Unprepared and weak-willed opponents continue to play right into his hands. Donald Trump is probably unaware that he’s an avid practitioner of a debating method known among philosophers and rhetoricians as the Gish Gallop. Its aim is simple: to defeat one’s opponent by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments.
“MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan (Summer of Unrest) breaks down methods of persuading others in this sharp manual. Studying the rhetorical styles and strategies of such figures as Diodotus, Christopher Hitchens, and Barack Obama, Hasan outlines techniques for speaking well, capturing an audience’s attention, and winning debates.”
Mehdi Hasan’s debates tend to go viral, like those against John Bolton, Erik Prince, or a Saudi ambassador. Hasan wipes the floor during debates and interviews. But it’s not an easy process; as Hasan says, it requires a lot of preparation. In “Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking,” Hasan outlines the best ways to win debates against all sorts of opponents.
Mehdi Hasan says he has been arguing all his life, and he’s made a career of it as a formidable interviewer known for challenging presidents and prime ministers on his MSNBC and Al Jazeera news programs. To him, a good-faith debate is not only the “lifeblood of democracy” but it’s also fun, and he wants us all to learn the craft.
In this excerpt from his new book Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, MSNBC host and lifelong debater Mehdi Hasan makes the case for ad hominems.
“I also think there’s a cultural thing and it doesn’t reflect well on us as Brits. We’re blunter, we’re ruder, weirdly we’re less stuck on etiquette. We’re the ones supposed to be the stiff upper lip; actually, no. There is an American political culture which is: that’s too rude, don’t go there, that’s seen as crossing a line. Some of those conventions need to be broken.”
“Hasan offers an entertaining primer on rhetorical techniques, including what Aristotle called appeals to logos (reason), pathos (emotion) and ethos (authority). Logos is the basic stuff of argument: Present the facts and draw connections between them. But it would be a pretty fantasy to think that the facts can speak for themselves: “The reality is that pathos beats logos almost every time.”
Unprepared and weak-willed opponents continue to play right into his hands. Donald Trump is probably unaware that he’s an avid practitioner of a debating method known among philosophers and rhetoricians as the Gish Gallop. Its aim is simple: to defeat one’s opponent by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments.
“MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan (Summer of Unrest) breaks down methods of persuading others in this sharp manual. Studying the rhetorical styles and strategies of such figures as Diodotus, Christopher Hitchens, and Barack Obama, Hasan outlines techniques for speaking well, capturing an audience’s attention, and winning debates.”
