Adding a rhetorical concession to the original article, something like: “As someone who is, academically, less-credentialed, upsetting the credentials hierarchy would be be to my advantage. My subconscious may be twisting my beliefs in a self-serving direction. However [… and so on...]” might make the original article stronger.
That would be fake humility used for the purposes of supplication, not improving the strength of the article. The main use of such an addition would be to demonstrate Contrarian Status Catch 22b. If you are asked why you disagree with a high status person and your answer is not “I was being smug and arrogant and I must be wrong” then you are being smug and arrogant.
The effectiveness of this ploy explains why “How do explain the fact that disagrees with you?” is such a popular form of one-upmanship. It works even when there is a good answer (and usually even when doesn’t disagree).
Yes, I agree. Rhetorical techniques are about persuasion, not truth. Possibly “stronger” should have been “more palatable” or “more acceptable to the non-choir”.
“More acceptable to the choir” would be more accurate. Around here the in-group signalling chorus is “other people are sycophants and I am better connected and less gullible”. More generally, the choir signal is “I consider any comments that don’t advocated deference to status unacceptable because I am high status myself and want the approval of those even higher”. From this it is easy to extract Contrarian Status Catch 18.
That would be fake humility used for the purposes of supplication, not improving the strength of the article. The main use of such an addition would be to demonstrate Contrarian Status Catch 22b. If you are asked why you disagree with a high status person and your answer is not “I was being smug and arrogant and I must be wrong” then you are being smug and arrogant.
The effectiveness of this ploy explains why “How do explain the fact that disagrees with you?” is such a popular form of one-upmanship. It works even when there is a good answer (and usually even when doesn’t disagree).
Yes, I agree. Rhetorical techniques are about persuasion, not truth. Possibly “stronger” should have been “more palatable” or “more acceptable to the non-choir”.
“More acceptable to the choir” would be more accurate. Around here the in-group signalling chorus is “other people are sycophants and I am better connected and less gullible”. More generally, the choir signal is “I consider any comments that don’t advocated deference to status unacceptable because I am high status myself and want the approval of those even higher”. From this it is easy to extract Contrarian Status Catch 18.