The target audience is people who feel like their interlocutor is using Motte and Bailey, when what’s actually happening is they’re trying to talk to a group and not separating out the individuals. Each individual person who knows what Motte and Bailey is who adds Mob and Bailey to their mental toolbelt is a point scored for this post, and every frustrated argument someone would have had of the form “You all said Y, but five minutes ago you all said X! Argh!” which instead has the form “You Bob said Y, and five minutes ago you Bella said X. I’m going to respond to Bob first, then I’ll respond to Bella after” is a victory for this post.
I’m going to type up a longer version in response to Ben’s reply here, but I think it’s fine to argue with one person and have others be convinced as “splash.” Another way to put this is if you start by responding to a specific argument, then you can maybe convince everyone who holds the original argument. E.g. “Lots of people think whales are fish, because they live in the ocean. I think this is wrong because whales have warm blood and fur, making them mammals, and that’s more important.” If someone thinks whales are fish because of a different reason, you may need different arguments. Though beware the idea that just because people make the same argument that they do so for the same reasons!
The target audience is people who feel like their interlocutor is using Motte and Bailey, when what’s actually happening is they’re trying to talk to a group and not separating out the individuals. Each individual person who knows what Motte and Bailey is who adds Mob and Bailey to their mental toolbelt is a point scored for this post, and every frustrated argument someone would have had of the form “You all said Y, but five minutes ago you all said X! Argh!” which instead has the form “You Bob said Y, and five minutes ago you Bella said X. I’m going to respond to Bob first, then I’ll respond to Bella after” is a victory for this post.
I’m going to type up a longer version in response to Ben’s reply here, but I think it’s fine to argue with one person and have others be convinced as “splash.” Another way to put this is if you start by responding to a specific argument, then you can maybe convince everyone who holds the original argument. E.g. “Lots of people think whales are fish, because they live in the ocean. I think this is wrong because whales have warm blood and fur, making them mammals, and that’s more important.” If someone thinks whales are fish because of a different reason, you may need different arguments. Though beware the idea that just because people make the same argument that they do so for the same reasons!