If I were advising the producers of The View

If you missed the drama, Joy and Whoopi walked of the set of The View today after a shout-out with Bill O'Reilly. 

If I were advising The View producers, I'd train all the hosts in challenging deceptive political fallacies, bully tactics and false arguments. Then I would task those who lean more toward the guest politically with addressing inflammatory remarks and dishonest arguments. 

 

I'd also have a moderator to pull the plug when Aggressions Law wins out, so  no one would feel a need to scream profanity or walk off the set to get attention. (I write about Aggressions Law in my book.)

 

O'Reilly made offensive sweeping generalizations, attacked the messenger and used bandwagon arguments. Joy gave the pinhead label to O'Reilly, and Whoopi asked a question that addressed the assumption in O'Reilly's remark. O'Reilly did not respond to her point but kept insisting on his. The focus of Whoopi's question was lost. By the time Joy and Whoopi walked out, no one was taking about the same thing.

 

The communication dynamics O'Reilly used have a way of triggering Izzies. (Reptilian brainlets.) Joy and Whoopi managed to not take the bait for a while, and then took it hook line and sinker.

 

If the producers of The View took my advice, perhaps they could have guests on the show who say inflammatory things without it deteriorating into a shouting match.

 

Of course it might not be great for ratings. But it would be great for democracy, and my book How to Restore Sanity to Our Political Conversations wouldn't be the only place we could learn how to have conversations with people we disagree with.

 

Of course the question behind all this for me is, where could we have better invested our time learning about policy rather than getting all agitated watching a shouting match?