Practice · trainer
Counter-move drills An utterance, four candidate replies. One reopens the forbidden question; each distractor fails in a nameable way. The bank mixes the primary corpus, historical figures, and everyday institutional speech — the skill should generalize. No timers: speed pressure rewards pattern-matching over reading.
Drill utterances are representative forms of each device, not verified quotes. The
verified specimens, with dates and primary sources, live in the
dossiers .
Static version: the drills require JavaScript, but the method doesn’t.
For each utterance below, ask: which reply grants the emotion, declines the warrant, and
restates the forbidden question?
1. “So — will that be cash or card?” (You haven’t said you’re buying.) (In the wild — sales, the assumptive close)
“Card, I guess.” “Hold on — I haven’t decided to buy it yet.” “Cash.” “What’s your return policy?” 2. “They’re coming after you. And I’m just standing in their way.” (Primary corpus — D1, persecution transfer)
“No one is coming after me. I feel fine.” “He’s a criminal and you know it.” “Your grievance can be real and he can be guilty — those are independent. Which evidence would settle it?” “Prove they’re coming after us, then.” 3. “The fake news media won’t report this.” (Primary corpus — D2, referee removal)
“The media is actually very trustworthy.” “Pick this one story. What exactly did it get wrong?” “You only believe that because you’re in a bubble.” “All politicians attack the press.” 4. “Many people are saying the results were rigged.” (Primary corpus — D3, evidence laundering)
“Name one of the many people.” “That’s a lie.” “Polls show most people don’t believe that.” “People say lots of things.” 5. “I have here in my hand a list of 205 members of the Communist Party…” (Lineage — McCarthy, Wheeling 1950)
“May we see the list?” “There are no communists in the State Department.” “This man is a demagogue.” “Even one communist would be too many.” 6. “We’ve decided to go in a different direction.” (In the wild — HR)
“Who decided, and on what grounds?” “This is so unfair.” “I’ll sue.” “I understand completely.” 7. “The only way we’re going to lose is if the election is rigged.” (Primary corpus — D5, heads-I-win priors)
“You’re going to lose fair and square.” “Before we look: what result would convince you it was legitimate?” “The election system is the most secure in history.” “Courts will decide.” 8. “Relax — it was obviously sarcasm.” (Primary corpus — D6, retroactive frame control)
“It didn’t sound like sarcasm to me.” “You never joke about anything else this way.” “Millions heard it straight. Which correction reached them?” “Jokes can still be harmful.” 9. “If we don’t win, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” (Primary corpus — M2, apocalyptic license)
“That’s fearmongering.” “No country anymore — via what causal chain? Name the mechanism and we can check it.” “Both sides say every election is existential.” “Our democracy is actually quite resilient.” 10. “Concerns were raised about the candidate’s collegiality.” (In the wild — academia)
“Whose concerns, stated where, answerable how?” “This candidate is extremely collegial.” “Everyone has concerns about everyone.” “I’m concerned about this process.” 11. “It’s the greatest economy in the history of the world.” (Primary corpus — M4, superlative saturation)
“It’s actually a terrible economy.” “Greatest by which number? Here’s the series — point to it.” “All politicians exaggerate.” “The previous administration’s numbers were better.” 12. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” (Primary corpus — D4, savior monopoly)
“You can’t fix anything. You’ve never held office.” “Suppose it is broken. What are the other three ways to fix it, and why are they worse?” “The system isn’t broken.” “Nobody can fix it alone; that’s just a slogan.” 13. “We will root out the … radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” (Primary corpus — D7, moral recategorization)
“That’s fascist language and you know it.” “Which specific people does that word cover, and what act earns it?” “Some of them really are thugs, to be fair.” “He doesn’t mean it literally.” 14. “I am your voice.” (Primary corpus — D8, voice merger)
“He’s not my voice; he’s a billionaire.” “If he’s your voice, then you’re the boss. What would firing-quality performance look like?” “Every politician says that.” “You only think that because you’ve been manipulated.” 15. “Crooked Hillary is at it again.” (Primary corpus — M1, nominal verdict)
“Don’t call her that.” “Crooked how, specifically — and on what evidence?” “He’s the crooked one.” “What is she supposedly at again?” 16. Nine new allegations in the past hour, none related to the one you were checking. (Primary corpus — M3, zone flooding)
“Let’s go through all nine.” “One claim. We stay on it until it resolves.” “This is a firehose; nothing he says can be trusted.” “I’ll come back when things calm down.”