FOUNDATIONS OF THE WEST – SOPHISTRY
I don’t like to be used. If you don’t either than read on. Lies and deception are widely used in the world to exploit people and finesse them into changing points of view as well as to deceive them into serving masters who don’t care about them and wish to use them. Have you ever had someone fixate on a minor point on a social media post, or look at a “fact” checker only to have them talk about something not directly related to what you are checking? That is because you are a victim of sophistry, we all are because it is everywhere today. Sophistry is a big word that goes back to ancient Greece but today a lot of people just call it “spin.” Spin, however, can be an honest viewpoint. Sophists are often knowingly using obfuscation and a selective use of facts and phrases to “change your mind” and manipulate you to do what they want.
Welcome Freedom Troopers to our essay on SOPHISTRY in the FOUNDATIONS OF THE WEST series. The government paid for my education and gave me millions of dollars in training as a Drill Sgt. Intel Analyst, Counterintelligence Special Agent, Immigration Officer, and helped pay for my academic training as well. In a lot of ways, I am still a basic cavalry scout doing recon and scouting things out for my readers so that they can know what they need to know to not only SURVIVE but WIN in the Battlefield we call LIFE. So, we don’t charge you anything to come here to SabersEdge.Online nor at our sister site ofNaturesGod.com but we do need your help. If you would recommend us too someone who would benefit from this essay please send it to them and, if you feel called to help REFORGE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WEST you can join us as a Reforger and Ride to the Sound of the Guns – into the fray to save America and you can support us in our fight by giving to our cause at GiveSendGo | Restoring America’s Foundations. I am a disabled vet on a fixed income now and, with a little help we could expand this site and reach even more people. Thanks for your consideration. [If you want to dig deeper into this see also: Live Not By Lies – Vote for Truth – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ]
Now, as they said in the ancient days of my boyhood watching the campy Batman TV show with Adam West and Burt Ward, we now return to our show “same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel.” Batman would have dealt with these Sophists verily…as would my personal fav hero of my youth Captain America. If you have dealt with these liars before on social media or in politics, you too may have been tempted to resort to fisticuffs to see if you could beat sense into them because logic and argument is completely useless. But, men are no longer allowed to settle ways in the method that used to silence sophists in the forum of public opinion. Sophists are cowards and cowards will not stand behind their beliefs or stand up to you directly if there are repercussions. We were made acutely aware of this on September 10th when a good man was murdered in front of his wife and kids by a coward. A good man whose only fault was trying to open a dialogue with his opponents. A situation that, in my opinion, points to the belief in the Left that they don’t need to face any consequences for their actions. That needs to stop, and too often any attempt to stop it is defeated by sophistry. [See also: We Are Men of Action, Lies Do Not Become Us – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ]
In today’s world this is a problem. However, you will see from the quotes we use and the essay itself that this problem extends to every time and place in human history where people have sought to twist the truth for their own ends. Today, people who are not aware of the dangers of the art of Sophistry are doomed to have their emotions and thoughts manipulated. They will be used by unscrupulous actors who are wielding insincere arguments and falsely presented facts to twist what you believe and understand into a paradigm of lies that will deceive you to participate in your own destruction. Today, we need to add the centuries of hazards that come with sophistry to the appearance of social media and search algorithms that knowingly try to shift your point of view. They do this by directing you, when you ask a question of AI or a search engine, to sites that are specifically spreading sophistry and “spin” to change your mind and redirect your political opinion or your dollars so that your vote, opinion, or your money can be used by others…and this is NOT in your best interest. [For more ramifications see: BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM – OUR COUNTRY IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR .]
By the time you are done with our article you will have a good knowledge of what sophistry is and how to recognize it in politics and even social media posts. Once you recognize it you will see it all around you and will be better able to resist their effort to control and beguile you. Sophistry is a big word for a simple concept: “deceiving by arguments, reasons, and ‘facts.’ ” As an added bonus, once you learn it you too can use the term to amaze and bewilder your friends and your enemies as you discuss things at parties, family dinner, or over coffee in the coffee shop.
As Noah Webster once said, “If you would debate with me sir, first define your terms.” He uttered this phrase in a political debate, probably with a sophist because they are infamous for changing the terms they are using in mid argument to serve their own ends. It is a kind of political bait and switch of topics that serves their argument but not the truth.
That is one thing I don’t like about debaters. They are trained in debate to win arguments – whether their argument is true or not. SabersEdge, on the other hand is all about cutting through the lies to get to the truth.
Unfortunately, far too many politicians and media figures are extemely good at this sophistry and “spin” and many, many people fall for their manipulations. Sophistry, is the twisting and warping of facts and truth to decieve, confuse, and control for the purpose of persuasion and power.
SOPHISTRY – subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation – the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving
This is not unique to the West and can be found everywhere. However, Western Society has named this “Sophistry.” Trump just calls it what it is…lying. Sophistry is named after a school of Greek Philosophy called “the Sophists.” This school was originally about training the young men of Athens to be leaders in the Athenian Republic. However, too quickly it became a school for manipulating people and facts rather than a way to discern truth. Now sophistry is almost exclusively used as a term for deceiving people through argument and “reasoning” in ways that lack sincerity and truth.
Our task at SabersEdge is to reforge the Foundations of the West so that we can build a brighter future upon firm foundations. The foundations of our Western Civilization as well as the United States itself have their roots deeply planted in the history and culture defined by the great leaders, philosophers, and movements of the West. Elements of our society are clearly grounded in, not only the Republic of Rome, but also in the Germanic and Norse tribal structures where every warrior who carried a sword in defense of the community had a say in not only day to day functions but also whether they would go to war or not. This is, actually, identical to the early Roman Republic where those who had the vote were called “the Vir” (from which we get our word “virile” or “manly,”) because it was those who defended the community and the nation that had the right to vote. Like so many things, history obscured the inconvenient truth that many women who opposed woman’s suffrage opposed it because it was understood that with the vote came the obligation to serve in the armed forces. (Somehow, we extended voting rights and foolishly ended that expectation.)
It is true that some things in our past may have outlived their usefulness. But it is also true that human civilization is a test in trial and error and the foundations of Western Civilization allowed for the creation of the most powerful, advanced, and egalitarian society that world has ever seen. Its foundations are still strong and the trial in error have shown that these building blocks have stood the test of time for thousands of years. They are strong, and they still hold true to alert us to both the good and the bad in our society today. These building blocks of civilization have been proven through the test of time but, today, the subversive, the seditious, and the ignorant have damaged those foundations almost beyond repair. But we at SabersEdge.Online believe it can be repaired. We need to return civilization to the solid foundations of the West upon which it was founded, even while we discard the things holding us back. By doing this we will be able to escape the shifting quick-sands of Post Modernism or woke relativism and build our future on solid foundations. If you would support this mission, then please give at GiveSendGo | Restoring America’s Foundations
Historically a “sophist” was a member of a school of philosophy in ancient Greece – especially in the 5th and 4th centuries BC [Before Christ]. They claimed to teach “virtue” or “excellence” especially in the art of argument to young statesmen and the nobility. Sophistry gained a negative reputation as tools for dishonesty and arbitrary reasoning solely for the purpose of winning arguments became the order of the day. Stoics and other philosophers who advocated ethical ways of living came to hate them because rather than attempting to get at truth they were all about winning. At SabersEdge we are all about winning, but we believe in MIGHT FOR RIGHT instead of Might Makes Right and we believe in winning FOR TRUTH by understanding the liars that we are up against. [If you want to know more about the importance of this and what we are fighting for see also: TWO VISIONS OF AMERICA; WHERE WILL OUR FUTURE LEAD? – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ]
For more on how the media is gaslighting you see: ASSAULT ON OUR VALUES, LIBERTY and HOPE!
Protagoras (not to be confused with the mathematician Pythagoras,) became notorious for his description of the “art” of sophistry as to “make the weaker argument stronger.” Today, sophistry is used disparagingly as a fallacious argument, especially an argument that is intentionally meant to deceive. A sophist is a person (and it is represented in the behavior of far too many politicians and academics today,) who uses intellectually dishonest arguments to deceive. They speak in a persuasive manner to manipulate the people, the laws, the government, and the courts. This is why sophists hate Trump. His “bull in the china shop” style smashes the niceties of their arguments and cuts through to the truth of the matter. You can see when Trump knows he is talking to a sophist, he cocks his head slightly to his left, his eyebrows go up slightly, and he goes “Hmmm.” At least that’s how I take that meaning. [For how this affects us today see: Beware! Lying Pollsters are Out to Get You]
When you are talking to someone on social media or in real life and you say something and then they fixate on arguing a minor point of what you said and ignore the meat of the matter one of two things are happening. 1) either they are stupid and failed their ‘reading comprehension’ tests at school horribly, or 2) they are sophists trying to “make the weaker argument stronger” by avoiding the point they would lose upon and arguing some minor point that is not directly related to your main point, or at least not a key element of your argument. Fact checkers do this so much I have stopped even bothering with them. They shouldn’t be called “fact checkers” they should be called “the league of sophists.” They put their lies in the first paragraph knowing that most people won’t read farther, then half-way into the narrative they admit that the point is actually true, then they use the last couple paragraphs trying to convince you that the truth doesn’t really matter. THAT is modern “fact-checking” and THAT is sophistry.
When a person uses these kinds of arguments, or when they blindly trust the “fact-checkers” you need to know that you are talkiing to a stone who cannot think for themselves. Your best bet it to ignore them and move on. As the Bible says arguing with a fool is like throwing pearls to swine. [For more on the difference between those intentionally destroying America and those who are just manipulated into it see: BLEEDING HEART USEFUL IDIOTS DESTROYING AMERICA – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations
On occasion, I have argued with a sophist, or a fool, but only if I think the argument will be beneficial to the others reading the page. You are not likely to actually get these people to see reason because they are either intentionally lying to you and using sophistry or they are brainwashed by lies and will die defending them. [To learn more on living truly you might want to look at what the Emperor Marcus Aurelius said in: Resolve Firmly to Act Like a Roman and a Man – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ]
It is useless to argue with these people because they live in the world of the lie. I for one, choose truth, and encourage you to do the same. But it is easier for you to find and choose the truth if you recognize how they lie to you.
[To understand more about the World of the Lie see also: The Lies Are Killing Us – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ; It’s Always Been About Lies and Control – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ; It’s Always Been About Lies and Control, Pt. II – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ; The Lies We are Told! – SabersEdge – Cutting Through Lies to Get to Truth – Reforging Foundations ; ]
