What is the rhetorical term (or word or phrase) for putting an
argument so badly you weaken your side? E.g. as a religious apologist
might make a mess of the case and put people off that religion, or a
bad salesman might drive away customers. Is there such a term covering
both intentional bad argument and unintentional? I've thought of
'liability', but was looking for something more specific to verbal
expression. 'Parody,' 'pastiche', 'caricature' and 'travesty' suggest
that your audience know you are being insincere, which is not what I
want. 'Fifth columnist' is in this area, but not right. Any better
answer?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 28 Apr 2006 06:38 PDT

Depending on your tolerance for obscurity, perhaps 'incondite' is the
word you're after:


http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0006924.html

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Clarification of Question by pc251-ga on 09 May 2006 04:12 PDT

'Incondite' seems in the right area, but it seems to refer to bad
argument generally. I was hoping for a word denoting argument with
opposite effect.

It's generally known as 'shooting oneself in the foot'.

You might call this "self-refutation."

You could say, "He is his own worst enemy."

'Incondite' seems in the right area, but it seems to refer to bad
argument generally. I was hoping for a word denoting argument with
opposite effect.

Contradictory, contradictious, or contradiction could be used to to
express this, if it was clear in the statement that it was referring
to the effect of the speaker's own argument.

If you presenting an argument in a manner that DELIBERATELY makes the
position easy to refute, it is called presenting a "straw-man"
argument, and it is not a valid form of argument (i.e. it is a form of
fallacy).  If you are not doing this deliberately, then, I suppose you
are not a very good representative for your position!