I've been teaching rhetorical strategies to my students. They wanted to know if there was any fool-proof way of winning an argument.
My reply was an emphatic "no", but in the back of my head, reductio ad hitlerum sprang into my mind. It's the dirtiest trick in the book: align your opponent with the Nazis or Hitler and you win, or appear to win, your argument.
"Vegetarianism saves grain that could legitimately feed the the world."
"Oh yeah? Hitler was a vegetarian."
Case closed.
It's a rhetorical device that is riddled with fallacies, to be sure. And, if you use it with someone more knowledgeable or smarter than you, you may find yourself looking like a right asshole. But it does have the lovely effect of stopping the argument in its tracks. Nobody wants to be a nazi.
I'm not a fan of reductio ad hitlerum. In some parts of the world, using it might even be a profound insult. But, I'll admit I have used it: it is of particular use in those conversations with belligerent know-it-alls who have no ability to listen to any perspective but their own.
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