“Playing devils advocate” is the non-insidious way to describe this tactic when it’s done in good faith, presumably with the other party being aware that one is not defending their true position or attacking those they necessarily think are false.
“I was just trying to make you think” definitely sets off alarms of back-pedaling and status dismissal. But, I’ve just as often heard “playing devils advocate” used for the same back-pedaling purpose. Though “playing devil’s advocate” seems to be used in bad faith more often than “just trying to make you think” when someone doesn’t care whether what they say is true or not. Sometimes it can be disguised as trying to help someone by training their ability to refute arguments. This can lead to the Advocate trying to “win” the argument with false beliefs and then updating the other party toward falsity as a sort of dominance. Or they can bail out with their status intact if it looks like they can’t win. Kind of like claiming that what has become a fight is actually only sparring once it’s gotten too intense. But only because they intentionally didn’t commit to either fighting or sparring but were instead gauging their ability to win, and without realizing it. In this way they can be sure to never lose an argument. I did this sometimes when I was younger, before I knew better. Coming out of the argument with my status intact was a higher priority than coming closer to the truth.
Trolls who would benefit by claiming to be “playing devil’s advocate” instead of “just trying to make you think”, will. Making a good faith effort and Intentionality are everything for this.
“Playing devils advocate” is the non-insidious way to describe this tactic when it’s done in good faith, presumably with the other party being aware that one is not defending their true position or attacking those they necessarily think are false.
“I was just trying to make you think” definitely sets off alarms of back-pedaling and status dismissal. But, I’ve just as often heard “playing devils advocate” used for the same back-pedaling purpose. Though “playing devil’s advocate” seems to be used in bad faith more often than “just trying to make you think” when someone doesn’t care whether what they say is true or not. Sometimes it can be disguised as trying to help someone by training their ability to refute arguments. This can lead to the Advocate trying to “win” the argument with false beliefs and then updating the other party toward falsity as a sort of dominance. Or they can bail out with their status intact if it looks like they can’t win. Kind of like claiming that what has become a fight is actually only sparring once it’s gotten too intense. But only because they intentionally didn’t commit to either fighting or sparring but were instead gauging their ability to win, and without realizing it. In this way they can be sure to never lose an argument. I did this sometimes when I was younger, before I knew better. Coming out of the argument with my status intact was a higher priority than coming closer to the truth.
Trolls who would benefit by claiming to be “playing devil’s advocate” instead of “just trying to make you think”, will. Making a good faith effort and Intentionality are everything for this.
Devil’s advocacy is declared in advance.
And I for one am against it.