I thought of a new law of argument. You know, like Godwin’s Law or Skarka’s Law.

“No aesthetic discussion can continue productively once Jar-Jar Binks is mentioned.”

Only problem is, I don’t want to affix my name to it. I don’t want my name associated with Jar-Jar!

So I’ve decided to make it more general. Now I maintain that there is a Jar-Jar effect. It’s when you’re having a constructive conversation or debate, and one person brings in a subject from which the other recoils so viscerally that the entire conversation is destroyed. As if that person cannot bear to be engaged with Jar-Jar (or Nazis, or George W. Bush) even in an abstract conversation. Jar-Jar effect. Tell your friends!