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… mistakes rote repetition for sound argumentation.
Judging from the protectionist’s engagement with advocates of free trade, he supposes that he’ll win the debate and prove that he has truth on his side if only he repeats, for the umpteenthgargantuzillionth time, the many tired fallacies that are the only talking points he knows. And, rather amazingly, the protectionist seems surprised upon discovering that his repeated ‘arguments’ alway fail to persuade free traders to change their views – views both of the case for a policy of free trade and of the protectionist’s own manifest economic illiteracy.
Alas, we must forgive the protectionist for his belief that repeated spewing of fantastic specimens of illogic and historical fallacies is an exercise in sound argumentation. After all, the protectionist also believes that the source of plenty is contrived privation, and that privation is the inevitable consequence of plenty. The sad and simple reality is that the protectionist is not a solid thinker.