I heard it said just this morning on the radio by a well known public figure:
"this situation (whatever it was) is right, wrong, good, bad, etc.
I know it, you know it, we know it.
This statement was made in a public forum.
The words, "you know it" are what I am honing in on.
The person saying it doesn't know me or you personally, yet as part of their language or speech, they often make these sweeping generalizations.
As I hear it again and again coming from this particular person, I find myself more and more alarmed because it seems that the public has allowed or is allowing themselves to be told what they know or what they believe by the repeated use of these words or words like them.
I tried to look it up rhetorically but I'm not sure it falls under that umbrella (as a specific rhetorical device).
I know that years ago there were books out that were geared towards winning friends and wielding power or simply put, ways to get people to do what you want - they were titled as such. I think such simplistic devices may be part of that whole ideology (as it were).
I'm just wondering what such a rhetorical style is called?