Sadly, talking out of your ass gives you an edge in debate.

[JNathanK]

When you can just pull facts out of your ass to win your argument, you really have the upper advantage over someone who argues in facts. You have the advantage of looking confident and intelligent, because you can just make things up off the top off your head. Now, on the other hand, if you're trying to remember real facts, names, statistics, etc, sometimes you have to pause to recall it all, and this of course makes you look weaker and less confident to the casual observer.

Like, one time I was trying to explain to someone who approached my local occupy group, details about the bailout and the implications of it, and I had to pause to recall a certain fact having to do with derivatives and hedge funds, and I was abruptly interrupted, after a few moments, with a tirade about how Obama being a crypto-communist and Kenyan. This of course got the original topic of course, and i never got to make my point.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Because you were talking with an idiot.

[JNathanK]

2. Its sad how many idiots there are though.

Its not just a fluke. There's millions of people that this works on. Just look at the popularity of Rick Santorum or talk radio personalities. They pull facts out of think air like this all the time.

[saras]

3. They teach this explicitly in law school

In many cases, it is simply impossible to do all the research necessary to have a realistic grasp of all the law applying to a subject. To succeed, especially to succeed in a timely manner, you are expected - and explicitly taught - to skim what you know and make up shit to fill the gaps.

Personally I like the atheistresource.com debate flowchart, but it's a whole conversation getting people to agree to it before discussing other things.

re your interruption
"crypto-communist" is name-calling, not legitimate argument. That justified immediately jumping in, talking over top of him, and calling him on this stuff as fast as it comes out of his mouth. I find something like "that sort of name-calling really excludes you from adult conversation, sorry." and STICKING TO IT works pretty well, especially if others agree.