In written form, a Gish Gallop is most commonly observed as a long list of supposed facts or reasons, as a pamphlet or
green ink web page, with a title that proudly boasts the number of reasons involved. To truly qualify as a Gish Gallop, this number must be at least 50 — a "top 10" list isn't really what this is about — and many truly epic examples hit triple figures. The individual points must also be fairly terse; often to the point where, individually, each point is easy to refute because it simply proves nothing. But combined, a Gish Gallop might run into the same length as a multi-page essay running into thousands of words. This provides insight into the motives of the Gish Galloper, as there seems to be some conflict between the scale of the Gallop and the shortness of the individual points. If brevity and ease-of-understanding was the aim (as suggested by short, easy-to-digest points) then they would be better off with a smaller number of points, like "the best five reasons" or "the top ten arguments." These not only stick in the mind of a reader, but also form a core argument that can be expanded on. If, on the other hand, a coherent and thorough argument was the intention (as suggested by the excessive word count), then the purpose would be best served by using the thousands of words expended in the Gallop to make a full essay, with points expanded and elaborated on to ensure they were thoroughly argued. By taking a curious middle ground, a Gish Gallop tries to create the illusion of authority and an incredible weight of evidence by sheer quantity alone, without any quality to back it up. To supporters, the illusion works, but those who disagree with the Galloper's points often find the amount of repetitive assertions and non-explanations offered tedious to deal with
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