Sophistry for the Stupid: An Introduction to Elon Musk's New Rule

The Left’s Penchant for Duplicity

According to Elon Musk, “As a general rule, any given piece of legislation will do the opposite of its name. The name is just propaganda to fool the public.”

Musk was referring to legislation put forward by Democrats and the Republicans who would appease them.

“The ‘secure our borders’ bill,” continues Musk, “would have done the exact opposite—amplifying illegal immigration and making the World War Z situation at the border even worse.”

Responding to the Musk rule, Sen. Mike Lee listed more examples of Leftist doublespeak, including the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Some call it propaganda, others irony, and still others call it gaslighting. At bottom, the practice of naming a piece of legislation the opposite of what it does is lying. Leftists are masterful liars. It’s as if they took a masterclass from the Prince of Lies himself.

Or maybe they’re all subject to mandatory training in sophistry.

It’s a Greek Thing

Once upon a time in 5th-century B.C., a group of “teachers” in Athens were famous for sophistry—making the weaker argument appear the stronger. To pull off the feat, sophists like Protagoras “used the rhetoric of antilogic to escape from the illusion of truth and make room for uncertainty.”

Sound familiar? It should. Leftists (and their RHINO lapdogs) don’t pursue truth—the Matter of Western Civilization—because they prefer to dodge it.

One of the most glaring examples of modern-day sophistry is the absurd notion that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man. No matter how badly you mutilate the human body, you can’t change a person’s sex. To do so would require reprogramming every cell in the body. It can’t be done.

And yet the Left has managed to push transexual ideology to the forefront of our culture. Because of this, biological men are playing women’s sports. That’s not just stupid—it’s dangerous.

See how it works? First, you pump up the body with meds like hormone blockers, remove and replace reproductive organs, dress the transmogrified patient up, and present them to the world as a transexual. The “transformation” isn’t real—it’s just an appearance.

The next step is to take it even further. If a biological man says he feels like a girl, he is one—pronto, just like that. And if he feels like a rabbit?

Has the Left brought sophistry to a new low or do the people who buy into the bull just a whole lot dumber than their ancient Greek counterparts?

It’s a rhetorical question. Do you know what they’re teaching in public schools these days? Hint: it doesn’t have much to do with critical thinking and problem-solving in the pursuit of truth. When “teachers” are allowed to purposefully dumb down students, there’s not a lot of hope left for the future of the West.

Case in Point

If the left can get away with pushing gender ideology in government schools and government offices, why wouldn’t they think that naming a bill “Border Safety and Security” would be enough to get it passed? Reality is what the Left says it is, right?

Thank goodness we’re not that far gone. Plato saw right through the eloquent bull of the ancient sophists and called them out for the liars they were. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) may be a far cry from Plato, but they can see that the so-called secure border bill was a joke.

“Now, in an election year, the Senate majority leader is trying to hide his party’s appalling record on border security behind another vote on a broken bill that still does absolutely nothing to secure the border,” wrote the Senators in a piece for The Hill. 

“In fact, it codifies an open border by allowing up to 5,000 illegal crossings per day before requiring the president to shut down the border. As far as we are concerned, one illegal crossing is too many; 5,000 is simply absurd.”

They were just getting started.

“The bill would also codify Biden’s catch-and-release policies, as it actually requires illegal aliens to be released while they are being processed. The American people are just supposed to accept that millions of poorly vetted illegal aliens will continue to move into their communities, taking their jobs, overcrowding their schools and driving up rent prices, but now with the federal government’s explicit imprimatur.”

“Instead,” the article concludes, “Democrats are using a broken bill to fool voters into thinking they are serious about border security. Don’t buy it. The American people don’t want a messaging exercise — they want to feel safe in their neighborhoods.”

A more concise way of putting it might be, “The so-called secure border bill is exactly the opposite of what it says it is. Let the voter beware.”

Chalk another one up for Elon Musk. As a general rule, he’s right on the mark when it comes to calling the Left out for what it is: Sophistry for the Stupid.