Fisking
Fisking, or "to Fisk", refers to the act of deconstructing, often in minute detail, an article, essay, argument, etc. with the intent of challenging its conclusion or theses by highlighting supposed logical fallacies and incorrect facts. The practice was named in honor of
British journalist Robert Fisk after he issued a dispatch from
Pakistan describing his savage beating at the hands of
Afghani refugees and expressing his opinion that, if he were in their position, he would have treated any Westerner the same. The term first appeared on either of the web logs
http://www.instapundit.com or
http://www.andrewsullivan.com and has to an extent retained its original ideological associations in that "Fiskings" are usually performed by
conservatives on their
left-wing opponents, especially those with strong
Third worldist sentiments.
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