A smooth, plausible argument points toward inaction or a low aim, and you need to tell whether the polish is reasoning or dressing.

Belial is introduced as a beautiful speaker with ugly intent. His counsel is passivity dressed as prudence: war, open or concealed, he dissuades — do nothing, and hope God's anger "in time may much remit." The move is to make surrender sound like strategy: endure, adapt, "this horror will grow mild, this darkness light" — comfort projected onto a situation with no evidence. Milton's narrator refuses to be charmed, labeling the speech "false and hollow," "ignoble ease and peaceful sloth." The mechanism is named outright, so you can name it too.