On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>> Here's the problem: people impute a motive, and then they turn off
>> any other critical thinking or assessment of the assertion
>
> They don't have to. Why is it so hard to do two things at once - in this
> case, evaluate both motive & argument?
>
> Doug
Sure, people can do both; it's just depends on which question you want to answer. "Why does that doofus make that bogus claim time and again?" --Analysis of motives is helpful. "Is that claim bogus?" --Analysis of motives is irrelevant.
Miles