Black rhetoric is a combination of methods of persuasion and manipulation, which are based on successful argumentation, which allows the opponent to suggest a convincing point of view. Many people use it today.
The difference between Karsten Bredemeier’s black rhetoric and classical white rhetoric is as follows. The usual rhetoric is carried out taking into account certain ethical rules, while black ignores them.
The basics of black rhetoric
Such a collection of persuasive techniques was described in Bredemeier's book Black Rhetoric: Power and the Magic of the Word. She uses to the maximum the following speech techniques:
- Rhetoric. The science of speaking to the public using techniques and elements of speech in order to persuade the public or opponent to their side and instill in them their own arguments.
- Dialectics. The science of verbal persuasion and negotiation in order to achieve the consent of the partner through understanding each other, while achieving the desired result.
- Eristic. The art of technical dispute management in order to achieve victory in it.
- Rabulistics. A small section of ericism, which consists of a set of argumentation techniques, during which the arguments given by the opponent are slightly distorted and exposed in a slightly different form.
The techniques described in Black Rhetoric: Power and the Magic of the Word make it possible to have a discussion with a specific purpose with almost any person. It doesn’t matter whether he is aggressive towards you or positive, you have many points of contact with him or your opinions differ completely. The power of black rhetoric will allow you to come to a consensus, understanding each other and putting the thoughts you need into the opponent’s head.
As already noted, a huge set of all sorts of conversational art techniques is used. Managers or sales agents of various companies have long been using both the clients and their colleagues all the tools they have for building a dialogue. They skillfully use both verbal persuasion techniques and nonverbal, that is, body language.
Application Technician
Anyone who uses Karsten’s black rhetoric violates the rules of ordinary rhetoric. The manipulator strongly supports the opinion of his interlocutor that the dialogue is conducted taking into account the interests of both sides, in every way creating the appearance of partnership, openness and friendliness. In this case, in fact, there is a consistent destruction of any probability of resistance from the opponent.
A speaker using black rhetoric is a person who is constantly searching for new ways and methods of influence, which he will use when those who are working at the moment cease to influence.
Such a manipulator has a huge variety of different models of speech construction and sophisticated techniques hidden in its sleeve, with the help of which it can seriously blur the boundaries of dialogue. The main thing for him is to achieve the task, and all sorts of generally accepted norms for conducting conversation and the like do not matter.
The black speaker destroys the old boundaries of the conversation, and then builds new ones, taking into account the new arguments, the far-fetched problems created by him, as well as new logical constructions (but excluding the old ones). He, along with constructive proposals, acts with destructive denial.
All the power and magic of black rhetoric lies in the skillful control of words using all the available possibilities of speech and language, as well as in the application of techniques aimed at disrupting the normal train of thought of the opponent.
Silence is gold
Aerobatics of black rhetoric is a sharp creation of a restless vacuum through unexpected silence. The end result of such a vacuum is a solution to the problem (or simply agreement) here and now.
Anyone who is able to do this using a wide range of word-mastery techniques will certainly be able to get a decisive advantage both in conversation and in resolving the situation, no matter how difficult it may seem from the beginning.
Call management
In rhetoric, people who play by their own rules achieve victory also by playing on the feelings of an opponent. The winner from such a verbal battle will be the one who manages to pick up a key to the opponent’s emotions.
Nobody, of course, will reveal his real plans, tactics and motives during the negotiations. Often, for the losing side, they remain under a veil of secrecy even after a verbal battle.
The black speaker will try his best to avoid a clash of opinions openly. Instead, he will try to confuse the opponent, chat him and lead the conversation completely to the wrong place for the opponent.
At the moment when the general confusion from what is happening reaches its critical point, the course of discussion abruptly turns in the other direction, beneficial for the clever manipulator who had planned it beforehand. When a certain problem was already artificially created, from which everyone was completely confused, and the conversation changed, the black speaker provides everyone with an allegedly necessary solution to the situation.
In this situation, the manipulator leaves the interlocutors out of the conversation and receives consent to his proposal, as well as universal recognition.
Users of black rhetoric are skillful conversational manipulators who manage the conversation and turn it in the direction they need, while cunningly convincing the other participants of their own disinterest.
Tactic Speakers Tactics
One of the main tactics of speakers using black rhetoric is to play on the contrasts of communication, the constant creation of emotional contradictions, the manifestation of which is observed, as a rule, a certain illogic, in contrast to ordinary rhetoric, which has an unconditional connection with logic.
Thus, when resistance should appear in a situation, the manipulator will be meek, but he will certainly begin to resist precisely when his opponent will count on meekness and compromise.
Repetition - the mother of learning
One of the techniques of dark oratory in order to effectively and imperceptibly lay the necessary idea in the head of the interlocutor is to repeat the same thought as many times as possible. Naturally, it’s not worth it to repeat the same sentence from time to time like a robot, otherwise the interlocutor will decide that something is wrong or take it as disrespect for himself.
The necessary thought must be stated in a variety of forms, and the more of these forms, the better and more inconspicuous. Use synonyms, reinforce an authoritative opinion for the interlocutor, which is similar to yours. In general, use everything that comes to hand and present the main idea many times and in different forms.
Direct questions
If you notice that you are being blatantly lying right in the face, it will be effective to ask the question as directly as possible, approximately in this vein: "Did you hear yourself? Tell me, if you were in my place, would you believe your own words?"
If you feel that your opponent is pushing your idea hard, it will effectively distract him and take him aside with questions. This is effective if the opponent uses the previous tactics. And the more often he is distracted, the more difficult it is for him to keep track of the course of the dialogue, the less likely the success of the suggestion on his part is, the easier it will be for you to push through your idea.
A good option would be to focus his and his attention on some insignificant detail and procrastinate it from all sides until the opponent finally loses his original thought.
Even if this option is not successful, and the opponent can still stand his ground, you can still ask him questions that are diverting to the side, and while he answers them, carefully think over his moves.
Image creation
In the event that you and your interlocutor do not have a serious confrontation of opinions, but you still need to bring it to something, try to create a certain image in the head of your interlocutor that he himself will want to follow.
Thus, you will not have to directly convince a person using serious argumentation, as soon as you manage to create a positive image of your idea in his mind, he will convince himself.
Reality bypass
The method by which objective reality can be circumvented by applying flexible pseudological constructions is called sophistry. Using this method, it is quite possible to convince the interlocutor, for example, that white is actually black.
For example, in the following dictum one can observe the explicit use of sophistry: "What you have not lost, you have. You have not lost the horns, which means you have horns." It seems that you can trace the logic, but it seems complete nonsense.
Sophisms may seem logical, because the laws of one apply completely to another, or pulling out of context is observed.
The basis of such logical errors, which a skilled speaker can quite put into practice, is that one of the propositions is unverified, so the further construction of the logical chain is in danger of completely losing its truth.
Practices of black rhetoric
People who use the persuasion techniques described by Carsten Bredemeyer in Black Rhetoric: Power and the Magic of the Word can be found in almost any professional field. The most common users are: psychologists, personal trainers, all kinds of consultants and lawyers.
There are certain attitudes in attorney or prosecutorial practice, according to which a lawyer must build his speech in order to achieve the greatest effectiveness. First, the argument should be beneficial, while it is imperative to contain facts, albeit not so significant for the case as a whole.
All speech should be built on one idea as a core, and other facts should, as it were, revolve around this idea. Argument building should be carried out in such a way that the opposite side does not have the opportunity to refute.
It is not necessary to stock up on a whole bunch of arguments, the main thing is that they have real weight in the eyes of those present.