Brief meditations on a common, usually-misleading tactic in discourse;
Predicting a response from a particular (type of?) opponent and mentioning it before that response, often using the opportunity to characterise it.
Why does this "work", in that why do people feel it is a successful move?
- Offering a (possibly) false explanation - It allows one to either be the first to frame a line of argument as one likes, or it allows one to offer a false explanation of the reasoning behind the objection, perhaps pressing buttons (stressing their membership in some widely-disliked groups) along the way.
- Conversaitonal flow dynamic - Arguments often are not entirely about their content; there's a give-and-take to issues that happens on an emotional level, and this disrupts that
