Too Polite to Fight?

One of the things that consistently derails community activists in public hearings, is the choreography of businessmen or social entrepreneurs who've had access to workshops on how to lie and maintain their composure while goading the untrained into ill-considered responses. Politicians practice duplicity, but psychological warfare almost never occurs to the sincere.

What the bad guys are often not prepared for (because they rarely see it) is the use of opposition research in these public venues--the presentation of documents into the public record that implicates them in embarrassing if not illegal behavior. By not responding to their bogus assertions, but rather attacking their credibility and integrity head on, they frequently storm stiff-jawed out of the courthouse in front of television cameras.

Sometimes their stooges even demand time to refute the ad hominem charges, repeating them over and over again in front of news reporters and public officials. Of course, this tool does no good in the hands of those who are too polite to fight.