Patronize Fake Sincerity with Excessive Desire to Help

Our favorite way to illustrate this ploy is by an actual incident that happened on a plane. Someone seated in First Class asked another first class passenger if he would swap seats with his wife in economy so they could sit together. Obviously, the person says no and that was that.

But the “Patronizing Ploy” response to this is to assume that the person is 100% on the level or oblivious and that you want to help them. So you tell them that you are sure that someone sitting in economy would probably take your first class seat instead so you could sit next to your wife. If they are on the level (highly unlikely), then they may go talk to their wife in economy, give up their first class seat and thank you for the suggestion.

But if they respond negatively, then you “patronize” them by just going on and on about how you're sure that someone would swap.

"Don't you want to sit next to your wife? You said you wanted to. I promise you if there is a solo passenger next to your wife they will surely take your offer."

And you continue until your target gets mad. And they are mad as they think you are patronizing them, and in getting mad they are implicitly revealing that their original intentions were dishonest. They hoped to bully you with guilt to give up your first class seat and they realize you know it.

Once you get them mad, the gig is up as you have succeeded in exposing them and you can close with something like, “I'm sorry. My apologies. I thought you really wanted to sit next to your wife.” but never give up the game about the obvious scenario that nobody would prefer to sit in economy instead of first class.

This same thing applies with politics when someone says something out of emotion that they don't mean literally like “All Democrats are Stupid” or “Democrats Cheat in Every Election”. This is a good tactic to also use if a conservative refers to 1940s Germany in an argument.

This is an especially good tactic to use on conspiracy theorists and also people who use insults in lieu of logic (ad hominem).

When someone uses insults, they are venting instead of making a valid argument. So, you "patronize" them by assuming they ARE making an argument and they actually literally believe XYZ person is whatever insult they made.

If someone uses a sexist word to smear a female politician's sex life, then respond with how you disagree and how she is a very nice person and cite actual "family values" credentials.

Many on the right have been conditioned to hate liberals from constant propaganda so they just reflexively resort to insults.