r/politics • u/Murky-Site7468 • 6d ago

'Chill The F**k Out': John Fetterman Urges Democrats To Stick With Joe Biden | The Pennsylvania senator reminded panicked Democrats on Friday that he too had a bad debate once, yet he went on to win his Senate seat.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-debate-john-fetterman_n_667ea850e4b0415858d6a2f1
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u/snorin 6d ago

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. How is Trump saying the same thing over again no matter the question persuasive. He just repeats I'm the best, no one has seen someone as great as me before. Biden is bad. He had nothing to say the entire time. I don't get how that is persuasive.

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u/gottago_gottago 6d ago

There are three kinds of arguments: logos, or arguments from facts and logic; ethos, or arguments from ethics and morality; and pathos, or arguments from emotion.

You're viewing the debate as argument-from-logos, but more people are persuaded by argument-from-pathos. For those people, the person that speaks more clearly, confidently, and loudly is the winner.

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u/snorin 6d ago

Necessarily your definition includes the word argument. Trump didn't have an argument. He lied in the same way essentially in the same words no matter the question. He did not present a view point, he just made things up.

That is what I don't understand. I don't know how anyone can say he won the debate, when everything he said is beyond disconnected from reality.

The only people who could say he won are those that already supported him.

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u/Shrekinator321 6d ago

Because the average American isn’t that far off intelligently from the average human. And the average human is motivated by emotion and “feel” rather than facts and logic. This is why pathos is so powerful and logos is mainly used in institutes of science.