The long and the short of it is that I think you’re right about the various pitfalls of debate with true-believer liberals. But I don’t want conservatives to re-examine their frames primarily as a means to debate more effectively with liberals. I don’t think that’s the best way to move the chains.

I want conservatives to be able to articulate their positions independent of progressive frames because I think a lot of people will respond to conservative positions, provided they’re presented calmly, intelligently, and comprehensively rather than half-assedly and with pre-emptive apologies. So I would like for folks on our side to do just that. The way I see it, the people worth addressing aren’t the table-banging progs at all but the normal folks out there who realize that things have gotten completely out of hand at almost every level of our society. They’re the folks who need to hear a true alternative. They’re the folks, I think, who are hungry for just that.

So, yes, I think you’re spot on in your analysis. It just doesn’t bother me all that much that a legitimate exchange of ideas with the other side is nine times out of ten off the table. They’re not an audience worth going after, in my view.

In my eyes, the problem with your hypothetical argument is not its logic or factual content, rather that the opposition will always choose principals over principles. The entire discussion then, is immediately bifurcated into those capable and willing to address the factual/logical content of someones argument and those inoculated against facts. Liberals are capable of some reasoning, but it is confined by the absolute batshit crazy axioms from which they construct their arguments. Also, if the average conservative takes the time to consider things (that lynching is a bad thing, even if it is a non sequitir), he will be cut down without a second thought by someone whose war cry is “Racism!” in the same way you might expect from someone shouting “Allahu Akhbar” or “Carthago delenda est!”

I imagine that someone of your intelligence and intellectual coherence would fair better, but with no false flattery, most of the troops do not bring the same fire power to the table. I agree about not apologizing, that is putting your own head in the guillotine.