Rhetorical Device

Techniques speakers and writers use to persuade - useful, neutral and sometimes manipulative.

10 concepts

Appeal to Common Sense

Using 'it's just common sense' as a substitute for evidence or argument, treating intuition as self-evident truth.

Softening harsh realities with gentler language - sometimes kindly, sometimes to hide the truth.

Presenting two sides as equally valid when the evidence overwhelmingly supports one.

The way information is presented changes how we respond to it - even when the underlying facts are identical.

Words chosen to trigger an emotional reaction rather than communicate neutral information.

The rhetorical strategy of making a claim more believable, more familiar, and more powerful simply by saying it again and again.

Blaming a person or group for problems they didn't cause, diverting attention from the real source.

The practice of engaging with the strongest possible version of someone's argument, rather than the weakest - the opposite of a straw man.

A commonly used phrase that shuts down critical thinking by making further discussion feel unnecessary.

Vague qualifiers that create the impression of a meaningful claim while committing to nothing.