Tactic of Dominating the Conversation

The Tactic of Dominating the Conversation occurs when one person or group of persons attempts to eliminate opinions other than their own by talking non-stop or interrupting constantly. A filibuster is a tactic by a minority party in politics, and is more of a way to stop an action by force than a deceptive practice. Each use of this tactic would need to be evaluated for other fallacies. Dominating the conversation is a deceptive practice, or tactic, of message control.

Examples of the Tactic of Dominating the Conversation

A talk-show host has a guest, and there is sharp disagreement. The guest tries to talk over the host and the host tries to talk over the guest.

There is a group discussion and one of the people in the discussion begins interrupting whenever any of the other participants say anything with which they personally disagree. Eventually the other participants keep talking even though the other person is talking over them, so the person interrupting raises his/her voice and both talk together, so that no one can discern what either of them is saying.

A rally is held in the public square and a speaker is shouted down by a small group of protestor with megaphones continually repeating a simplistic chant, usually a rhyme that goes, “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! And then a line that rhymes with Ho!”

The poetry is sad, but the other message cannot be heard and evaluated and that's all that counts when knowing the truth is not the goal.