| Interesting take. > you probably know what I mean by “hitting the cache” In addition to simplifying the conversational lives of over-subscribed talkers, this convenient-answer effect also comes into play with propaganda. People who feel dissonance on some topic are easily convinced to adopt non-answers that they can throw down like cards, to make the dissonance (and challenges) go away. You may notice that most whataboutisms, jeering dismissals, deflecting responses, etc., are highly recognizable canned answers. Not just irrational answers. The caching does triple duty: 1. Efficient as easy answers. 2. Efficient followup stoppers, because the person hearing them has already heard (cached) them too. 3. Effective short circuits of internal dialogue. I find an effective response is to simply ask someone why they parroted something that doesn't make sense or actually mean anything. And then listen politely to the subsequent pause. I have yet to meet someone with a good response for being called on their unoriginal canned non-response. Judo: obvious parroting and caching naturally undermine their own credibility when you don't play along. |