About Gish Gallop:

Gish Gallop aims to overwhelm rather than inform, creating an illusion of expertise and validity by piling on multiple points or arguments in quick succession. This leaves the opponent or audience with insufficient time (or technical ability) to evaluate or counter each point, giving the appearance that the issuer has presented an irrefutable case.

While the individual elements might be factual, they are often

• presented without context,
• selectively cherry-picked,
• excessively obscure or technical,
• behind paywalls only the issuer can access, and/or
• sometimes even irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Gish Gallop is useful tactic for point-scoring. And by swamping the conversation with information, it alienates those who disagree but may lack the knowledge or time to articulate why.

Gish Gallop exploits the audience’s cognitive limitations. The sheer volume of information presented demands more cognitive resources than most people are willing or able to expend, especially when scrolling through a social media feed. This tactic also takes advantage of the “halo effect,” where the appearance of expertise or scholarship in one area is assumed to apply more broadly.

A diplomatic way to respond to a Gish Gallop is to ask the issuer to prioritize their most significant points for a more focused discussion. This shifts the burden back to the issuer to make a coherent argument rather than hiding behind a barrage of data.