Back in 2008, Tyler Cowen wrote about the stupidity button, in response to some rabble-rousing rhetoric:

When I see people writing sentences of this kind, I imagine them pressing a little button which makes them temporarily less intelligent. Because, indeed, that is how one’s brain responds when one employs this kind of emotionally charged rhetoric.

As you go through life and read various writers, I want you to keep this idea of the button in mind. As you are reading, think “Ah, he [she] is pressing the button now!”

I’ve pressed that button myself many times, and always regretted it.