...or better, the "have your parents stopped beating you yet" tactic for listener conversations

It seems to me that every once in a while Stef will be in a 'listener convo' podcast with someone, and this someone will go about describing some kind of personal problem for a while, and after achieving some rapport in the conversation, Stef comes up and says, "that is so because you were brutalized as a child".

To be sure, many listeners have real stories of abuse (and apparently when that is so, they make it known early in the conversation), but sometimes it seems to be just wishful thinking tied to Stef's psych theories... to not leave Stef hanging, the listener agrees, and tells some story that could be as mild as that of a mother who wants a room cleaned. This is a failproof tactic, because any story of conflict can be construed as "verbal abuse" depending on the POV.

Best example I can think of this:podcast #1037

That "tactic" is known as the fallacy of many questions.

questions like that are Stef's version of 'being curious' about the other.

so he keeps the form that curiosity takes (asking questions), but not the intent (since his line of questioning obviously presupposes the framework he is using and will not abandon)