The Belittlement Charge: Rhetoric Technique

As stated in number thirty, getting the audience riled up depends upon making it believe that their desires are not being considered by the persuader’s opponent. Heinrichs calls this technique “The Belittlement Charge” (Thank You For Arguing, page 88).
An appeal to patriotism is one in which emotions are used to show loyalty towards something. To engage patriotism in the audience, one should point out to the audience the opponent’s success. This helps the audience to feel like they are a part of something important. Patriotism should not be tied to idealism. Ideas are not a part of emotional appeal, rather a part of logical appeal. Patriotism is associated with pathos as idealism is associated with logos.
Working sort of opposite to patriotism is emulation. Emulation works by giving the audience a role model that they idolize, someone containing vast quantities of ethos in their eyes. This is the most positive of the three emotions intended to get the audience up. Inciting anger

The one thing each of those uses has in common is that the passive voice acts as a tranquilizer in an argument. The passive voice makes it seem as though something occurred by itself with no help from a source of any kind. Its purpose of calming the audience has been taken advantage of by scientists and creationists alike.
Although placed in the offense section of the book, the technique labeled “set a backfire” (Thank You For Arguing, page 102) seems to contain a defense mechanism. Instead of waiting for the full fury of someone you may have wronged by making a mistake, setting up a backfire for yourself gives yourself a chance at extinguishing a part of the flame through generating sympathy. The tool requires that the persuader live up to their mistake, provide examples of how he or she attempted to rectify the mistake, and show how disappointed you are in yourself for making the mistake in the first