Loaded Question
Ask a question that already assumes something the other person hasn't agreed to.
"Have you stopped cutting corners on safety yet?" Any yes or no answer admits corners were cut.
A loaded question smuggles an unproven assumption into its phrasing, so that any direct answer accepts the assumption along with it.
The classic example is “have you stopped X yet,” which has no honest yes/no answer if X was never actually happening.
The right move is to reject the framing before answering: “I never cut corners on safety, so the question doesn’t apply.”
Seen in the wild
Real, sourced instances of this technique in actual public debate.
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