The Moonwalk
30th August 2020
Severian creates some terminology.
You’ll have to trust me on this, I guess, but way back in Rotten Chestnuts’ early days I had a post about “moonwalking.” This was my attempt at… meme generation, I guess, although it was really just shorthand for some things we were dealing with at the time (anyone who came over from House of Eratosthenes remembers the Cuttlefish infestation). “Motte and Bailey” seems to have caught on as a way to describe this Leftist rhetorical tactic, so you may have seen it described that way, but even if not you know the kind of thing I’m talking about:
From the totally 100% true scientific fact that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, Lefty will, if you let xhyzer, insist on the whole “Green New Deal” schmear. If you point out all the problems with the GND, though, and Lefty feels like xhzyr is losing the argument, xzhe scuttles back to “carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas!!,” then calls you a “science denier” — as if all the flaws you pointed out with the Green New Deal only exist if you deny, as no literate person could, that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It’s such a bizarrely stylized gesture — didja really think we didn’t notice, Snowflake? — that it looks like a dance move. Hence, moonwalking.
Scott Adams loves calling out this kind of thing, and he does it very entertainingly.