Ridicule is a powerful weapon if used correctly. We underestimate the influence of peer pressure in our world. And almost nobody likes to be ridiculed and suffer public humiliation.

The story of the emperor not wearing clothes is a good example of where arguing is pointless. The little boy doesn’t start explaining to people the merits of wearing clothes. He just points out the obvious, that the emperor has no clothes.

This came to mind when the evil Joe Biden gave his State of the Union address.

I confess I didn’t watch the speech, but I did see some highlights. Apparently some Republicans were heckling Biden and not exactly being polite. Of course, the conduct at the State of the Union speeches has deteriorated in more recent years. Remember Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump’s speech while sitting behind him.

I can see libertarians arguing either way on this one. I’m not sure that being rude is an effective way to sell your message or to shut down someone else. At the same time, I realize that the office of the presidency shouldn’t get the respect it does (or did in the past).

There was one particular moment in the speech that I liked though. Joe Biden was talking about the oil companies. He said, “When I talk to a couple of them, they say we’re afraid you’re going to shut down all the oil wells and all the oil refineries anyway. So why should we invest in them. I say we’re going to need oil for at least another decade.”

That’s when many Republicans attending the speech started laughing. Biden then said, “and beyond that”. It is actually amazing that his speech writers were that stupid to write that part of the speech. I’m guessing Biden added the last part when people started laughing at him.

I thought it was a great moment. There was no more powerful expression at that time than laughter. Biden expects oil companies to invest tens of millions of dollars in new refineries when he is threatening to shut them down.

And even if they were allowed to continue uninterrrupted for the next 10 years, that isn’t very long when you are talking about such capital-intensive projects. The laughter just pointed out the absurdity of it all, in case anyone missed it.

A Libertarian Lesson

Sometimes libertarians just want to debate or argue. This is not typically effective in winning people over. It isn’t even that effective for an audience watching a debate.

Imagine you see someone outside wearing a mask and the person starts talking to you and wondering why you aren’t wearing a mask. And for this example, it doesn’t even matter if you know the person or not.

You want to stand your ground and convince this person that wearing a mask, especially outside in the sun, is stupid and ineffective at best.

So you have two options. One, you can start talking about some studies you’ve read on the effectiveness of masking and how many experts actually believe that masks don’t help in stopping the spread of a virus.

Two, you can just start laughing at the person. “You are wearing a mask outside in the sun. Do you know how ridiculous you look? Yeah, I’m sure everyone outside today not wearing a mask will be showing up in the hospital in a matter of days. Ha ha.”

Imagine having a group of ten people playing basketball and some guy in a mask shows up to play. Talking about studies on the ineffectiveness of masking probably isn’t going to convince the guy to take it off.

You know what will convince him? When the guys start making comments ridiculing him for it. “Hey mask man, are you going to be able to play defense, or are you afraid to get too close to anyone? Or are you just covering up your ugly face?”

I really prefer not to be rude in almost any situation, but I don’t feel bad about being rude to people who are trying to use force to ruin other people’s lives.

So if anyone can mock Biden, I am all for it. But it should be done in a way that sells to other people. The laughter at that one comment at that one moment in his speech was extremely effective. It was better than anything anyone could have said to counter argue the issue.

We need facts, history, and logical arguments to form a good basis for our libertarian principles. Sometimes for your Facebook friends, a funny meme is far more effective than any other argument you could put together.