Another thing to learn about whether or not something can be defined as rhetoric:deceptiveness and the “gotcha” tactic are disqualifiers.
In other words, the purpose of rhetoric is to convey secondary meaning. To illustrate a different, perhaps subtle point. But the rhetorician’s use of rhetoric is always in the open.
It’s not used to trick the audience. Rhetoric is not used like a razor blade in an apple. So your comments were not rhetoric at all.
They were deceptive tricks. Big difference.
“So your comments were not rhetoric at all.”
It was a question.
Ir was not rhetoric.
It was not a comment.