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tzachquiel comments on What subjects are important to rationality, but not covered in Less Wrong? - Less Wrong
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I know its supposed to be considered a "dark art" here, but what about debate techniques and styles, persuasive writing, rhetoric, that sort of thing? Not to trick people into believing something that's false, but to effectively persuade people to believe something that's true, using time-tested methods of getting your point across. I don't believe anything is actually a dark art; anything can be good or bad depending on how you use it.
I've done a couple LW posts on speaking skills (none intended to be Dark Arts-y), in case you find any helpful:
Four Tips for Public Speaking - The four tips that seemed to improve speeches the most, fastest, when I was mentoring other speakers in college
False Friends and Tone Policing - Ways to recognize if you're giving inadvertent offense that is making it impossible for your audience to listen to you
Change Contexts to Improve Arguments - Putting thought into choosing good environments for disagreement (my living room, with freshly baked cookies, makes people feel safer and more inclined to engage with ugh fields, than rapid-fire and in public on facebook)
Different methods are more and less likely to lead one to the truth (in a given universe). I see little harm in calling those less likely arts dark. Rhetoric is surely grey at the lightest.
Presentation will influence how people receive your ideas no matter what. If you present good ideas badly, you'll bias people away from the truth just as much as if you presented bad ideas cleverly.