This is an essay I read in college, written by some german philosopher way back when. It's title was "38 ways to win an argument" but it's more accurate to say, "38 ways to cheat while arguing".

These are dirty tricks that almost everyone uses sometimes, but a few posters (Like the False Dorsai) use them in almost every post. So, in the interest of throwing more gasoline on the fire… I mean, raising the quality of debate here, I'm posting the 38 dirty tricks so that we all know what to look out for.
Thanks go to Arthur Schopenhaur, the German philosopher who codified these little stratagems in "The Art of Controversy". So, without further ado, here they are.

1) Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it.

The more general your opponent's statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. The more restricted and narrow your own propositions remain, the easier they are to defend. (Example: "Some psychs abuse people. Scientology objects to that abuse, so by opposing Scientology, you defend abuse!") 2) Use different meanings of your opponent's words to refute his or her argument.

3) Another trick is to ignore your opponent's propositions, which was intended to refer to a particular thing. Rather, understand it in some quite different sense, and then refute it. Attack something different than that which was asserted.

4) Hide your conclusion from your opponent until the end. Mingle your premises here and there in your talk. Get your opponent to agree to them in no definite order. By this circuitous route you conceal your game until you have obtained all the admissions that are necessary to reach your goal.

5) Use your opponent's beliefs against him. If the opponent refuses to accept your premises, use his own premises to your advantage. (This is not actually a dirty trick, but I'm including it for completeness.)

6) Another plan is to confuse the issue by changing your opponent's words or what he or she seeks to prove. (VERY COMMON on a.r.s., by cultists and critics alike.)

7) State your proposition and show the truth of it by asking the opponent many questions. By asking many wide-reaching questions at once, you may hide what you want to get admitted. Then you quickly propound the argument resulting from the opponent's admissions.

8) Make your opponent angry. An angry person is less capable of using judgment or perceiving where his or her advantage lies.

9) Use your opponent's answers to your questions to reach different or even opposite conclusions.

10) If your opponent answers all your questions negatively and refuses to grant you any points, ask him or her to concede the opposite of your premises. This may confuse the opponent as to which point you actually seek them to concede.

11) If the opponent grants you the truth of some of your premises, refrain from asking him or her to agree to your conclusion. Later, introduce your conclusions as a settled and admitted fact. Your opponent and others in attendance may come to believe that your conclusion was admitted.

12) If the argument turns upon general ideas with no particular names, you must use language or a metaphor that is favorable to your proposition.

13) To make your opponent accept a proposition, you must give him or her an opposite, counter-proposition as well. If the contrast is glaring, the opponent will accept your proposition to avoid being paradoxical.

14) Try to bluff your opponent. If he or she has answered several of your questions without the answers turning out in favor of your conclusion advance your conclusion triumphantly, even if it does not follow. If your opponent is shy or stupid, and you yourself possess a great deal of impudence and a good voice, the trick may easily succeed.

15) If you wish to advance a proposition that is difficult to prove, put it aside for the moment. Instead, advance for your opponent's acceptance or rejection some true proposition, as if you wished to draw your proof from it.

Should the opponent reject it because he or she suspects a trick, you can obtain your triumph by showing how absurd your opponent is to reject a true proposition. Should the opponent accept it, you now have reason on your side for the moment. You can either try to prove your original proposition, or as in #14, maintain that your original proposition is proved by what the opponent accepted. For this an extreme degree of impudence is required, but experience shows cases of it succeeding.

16) When your opponent puts forth a proposition, find it inconsistent with his or her other statements, beliefs, actions or lack of action.

17) If your opponent presses you with a counter-proof, you will often be able to save yourself by advancing some subtle distinction. Try to find a second meaning or an ambiguous sense for your opponent's idea.

18) If your opponent has taken up a line of argument that will end in your defeat, you must not allow him or her to carry it to its conclusion. Interrupt the dispute, break it off altogether, or lead the opponent to a different subject. (Seen whenever Dorsai666 refuses to acknowledge critical posts pointing out his inaccuracies) 19) Should your opponent expressly challenge you to produce any objection to some definite point is his or her argument, and you have nothing much to say, try to make the argument less specific.

20) If your opponent has admitted to all or most of your premises, do not ask him or her directly to accept your conclusion. Rather draw the conclusion yourself as if it too had been admitted.

21) When your opponent uses an argument that is superficial and you see the falsehood, you can, it is true, refute it by setting forth its superficial character. But it is better to meet the opponent with a counter argument that is just as superficial, and so dispose if him or her. (Quietly, and without sorrow...)

22) If your opponent asks you to admit something from which the point is dispute will immediately follow, you must refuse to do so, declaring that it begs the question.

23) Contradiction and contention irritate a person into exaggerating their statements. By contradicting your opponent you may drive him or her into extending the statement beyond its natural limit. When you then contradict the exaggerated form of it, you look as though you had refuted the original statement. Contrarily, if your opponent tries to extend your own statement farther than you intended, redefine your statement's limits and say, "That is what I said, no more."

24) This trick consists of stating a false syllogism. Your opponent makes a proposition, and by false inference and distortion of his or her ideas, you force from the proposition other propositions that are not intended and that appear absurd. It then appears the opponent's proposition gave rise to these inconsistencies, and so appears to be indirectly refuted.

25) If your opponent is making a generalization, find an instance to the contrary. Only one valid contradiction is needed to overthrow the opponent's proposition. (Not a dirty trick, included only for completeness.)

26) A brilliant move is to turn the tables and use your opponent's arguments against his- or herself. (Also not a dirty trick.)

27) Should your opponent surprise you by becoming particularly angry at an argument, you must urge it with all the more zeal. Not only will this make the opponent angry, it may be presumed that you have put your finger on the weak side of his or her case, and that the opponent is more open to attack this point than you expected. (Also not a dirty trick) 28) This trick is chiefly practicable in a dispute if there is an audience who is not an expert on the subject. You make an invalid objection to your opponent, who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience. This strategy is particularly effective if your objection makes the opponent look ridiculous or if the audience laughs. If the opponent must make a long, complicated explanation, to correct you, the audience will not be disposed to listen.

29) If you find that you are being beaten, you can create a diversion - that is, you can suddenly begin to talk of something else, as though it had bearing on the matter in dispute. This may be done without presumption if the diversion has some general bearing on the matter. (Example: Any "Psychs are evil!"

thread.)

30) Make an appeal to authority rather than reason. If your opponent respects an authority or an expert, quote that authority to further your case. If needed, quote what that authority said in some other sense or circumstance.

Authorities that your opponent fails to understand are those which he or she generally admires the most. You may also, should it be necessary, not only twist your authorities, but actually falsify them, or quote something that you have invented entirely yourself.

31) If you know that you have no reply to the arguments that your opponent advances, you may, by a fine stroke of irony, declare yourself to be an incompetent judge. In this way, you insinuate to the bystanders that what your opponent says in nonsense. This is a trick that may be used only when you are quite sure that the audience thinks much better of you than your opponent. (Not likely to ever work on a.r.s. so don't bother, cultists.)

32) A quick way of getting rid of an opponent's assertions, or of throwing suspicion on it, is by putting it in some odious category. In making an objection of this kind, you take for advantage 1) That the assertion or question is identical with, or at least contained in, the category cited, and 2) The system referred to has been entirely refuted. (Example: "Psychiatry was used by Nazis!") 33) You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion.

34) When you state a question or an argument, and your opponent gives you no direct answer, or evades it with a counter-question, or tries to change the subject, it is a sure sign you have touched a weak spot, perhaps without knowing it. You have, as it were, reduced the opponent to silence. You must, therefore, urge the point all the more, and not let your opponent evade it, even when you do not know where the weakness that you have hit upon really lies. (Note: This one isn't really a dirty trick, I'm just including it for completeness.)

35) This trick makes all others unnecessary if it works. Instead of working on an opponent's intellect, work on his or her motive. If you succeed in making your opponent's opinion, should it prove true, seem distinctly prejudicial to his or her own interest, the opponent will drop it like a hot potato. ("Bob Minton's after money!") 36) You may also puzzle and bewilder your opponent by mere bombast. If the opponent is weak or does not with to appear as if he or she has no idea what you are talking about, you can easily impose upon him some argument that sounds very deep or learned, or that sounds indisputable. ("You just don't understand.

You have to read (Insert waste-of-toilet-paper Hubbard book here) first!"

37) Should your opponent be in the right but, luckily for you, choose a faulty proof, you can easily refute it and then claim that you have refuted the whole position. This is the way in which bad advocates lose a good case. If no accurate proof occurs to the opponent or the bystanders, you have won the day.

38) A last trick is to become personal, insulting, and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular trick, because everyone is able to carry it into effect. (Example: "Stacy's ugly!" "Mark's fat!" "Hubbard was fat and ugly!" also counts, but "Hubbard was an insane drug addicted con man!" does not, because that is both true and relevant to any discussion on a.r.s)

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