When did you stop beating your wife?
— Unknown
One New York-based consultancy, Pollyanna, charges $1,750 per hour to curriculum-wash, starting the process with a 360-degree review of a school’s faculty.
You know something's wrong when the $1,750-an-hour consultants turn into inquisitors.
This is an example of the infamous loaded question.
The favorite interrogation device of detectives, journalists, salespeople, extremists and witch hunters, the loaded question contains the seeds of the answerer's downfall:
"Why are you content to bow to Iran?"
"Why didn't you give up heresy when you knew it was sinful?"
Interrogators during the Inquisition were aware how unfair the loaded question was, but that didn't stop its use. They even encouraged widespread use of the loaded question in the handbook Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches).
According to philosophers, the loaded question (plurium interrogationum) is a trick question, a fallacy always to be avoided.
It's a trick because the loaded question contains one or more question-begging presuppositions; for example, "So have you stopped grooming pretty eighth grade girls?" You can't answer the question without either lying or accepting statements you would deny.
"So where did you hide the gun?"
"Why are you content to bow to Iran?"
"Do you want a one- or two-year contract?"
"Why do you endorse the murder of unborn babies?"
"Why didn't you give up heresy when you knew it was sinful?"
Interrogators during the Inquisition were aware how unfair the loaded question was, but that didn't stop its use. They even encouraged widespread use of the loaded question in the handbook Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches).
The loaded question also lets the interrogator slip claims into his rhetoric without needing to prove them, or acknowledge their falsehood when unproven; for example, "Why does the media hate all conservatives?"
Like a loaded gun, a loaded question is a dangerous thing.
In the hands of inquisitors, it's terrifying.
