Knocking down a position that nobody in the room actually holds

The easiest argument to defeat is one you have quietly rewritten, and rewriting is easier to do by accident than most of us think.

Someone says they are not sure the new kettle is worth the extra money. The reply comes back: so you think we should all buy the cheapest rubbish and replace it every year. That is not what was said. It is a nearby position, more extreme, and much simpler to knock over. Whoever replied may feel they have won, and in a sense they have, but not against the person in front of them. They have won against a version they built themselves. The original doubt about value for money is still standing, untouched, and will resurface next week.

This happens most often when the real position is careful and the careful version is annoying to argue with. Hedged claims are hard work. They come with conditions and exceptions and admissions that the other side has a point. Stripping the hedges out produces something crisp and vulnerable, and the temptation is enormous, particularly when you are tired or feel you are being got at. The honest fix is slow and slightly tedious: before responding, say the other position back in words the other person would accept. If they would not sign off on your summary, you are not yet arguing with them.

There is a mirror image worth watching for too, which is when you find your own view being easy to defend. If every objection you meet is feeble, one possibility is that you are right. Another is that you are meeting only the feeble objections, either because nobody serious has bothered or because you have been quietly translating the serious ones into weaker forms as they arrive. A view that has never met its strongest opponent has not been tested, however many arguments it has won. The comfortable feeling of always having an answer is exactly the feeling you should be suspicious of.