Logical Fallacies

Slippery Slope

The common fallacy that "one thing inevitably leads to another." E.g., "If you two go and drink coffee together one thing will lead to another and next thing you know you'll be pregnant and end up spending your life on welfare living in the Projects," or "If we close Gitmo one thing will lead to another and before you know it armed terrorists will be strolling through our church doors with suicide belts proud as you please during the 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship service right here in Garfield, Kansas!"

They're All Crooks

The contemporary fallacy of refusing to get involved in public politics because all politicians and politics are allegedly corrupt, ignoring the fact that if this is so in a democratic country it is precisely because "decent" people like you and I refuse to get involved, leaving the field open to the "crooks" by default.

Appeal to Closure

The contemporary fallacy that an argument, standpoint, action or conclusion no matter how questionable must be accepted as final or else the point will remain unsettled, which is unthinkable because those affected will be denied "closure." This fallacy refuses to recognize the undeniable truth that some points will indeed remain open and unsettled, perhaps forever.

Bandwagon Fallacy

The fallacy of arguing that because "everyone," "the American people," or "the majority" (or someone in power who has widespread backing) supposedly thinks or does something, it must be true and right. "Whether there actually is large scale voter fraud in America or not, many people now think there is and that makes it so." Sometimes also includes Lying with Statistics, e.g. "Over 75% of Americans believe that crooked Bob Hodiak is a thief, a liar and a pervert. There may not be any evidence, but for anyone with half a brain that conclusively proves that Crooked Bob should go to jail!"

Ad Hominem

The fallacy of attempting to refute an argument by attacking the opposition's intelligence, morals, professional qualifications, personal character or reputation, using a corrupted negative argument from ethos. "What do you know, you didn't even pass basic math!"

Tu Quoque

The fallacy of defending a shaky or false standpoint or excusing one's own bad action by pointing out that one's opponent's acts, ideology or personal character are also open to question, or are perhaps even worse than one's own. "Sure, we may have tortured prisoners and killed kids with drones, but we don't cut off heads like they do!" Or, "You can't stand there and accuse me of corruption! You guys are all into politics and you know what we have to do to get reelected!"

Argument from Ignorance

The fallacy that since we don't know (or can never know, or cannot prove) whether a claim is true or false, it must be false (or that it must be true). "The vet can't find any reasonable explanation for why my dog died. That proves that you poisoned him! There's no other logical explanation!"

Third Person Effect

The postmodern fallacy of deliberately discounting or ignoring media information a priori, opting to remain in ignorance rather than "listening to the lies" of the mainstream media, the President, the "medical establishment," professionals, professors, doctors and the "academic elite" or other authorities or information sources, even about urgent subjects (e.g., the need for flu vaccinations) on which these sources are otherwise publicly considered to be generally reliable or relatively trustworthy.

Appeasement

This fallacy asserts that it is necessary to give in to offensive, uncivil public behavior in order to resolve a conflict. Most often popularly connected to the shameful pre-World War II appeasement of Hitler, it is in fact still commonly practiced in public agencies, education and retail business today: "The customer is always right. Don't argue with them. Just give 'em what they want so they'll shut up and go away, and not make a stink--it's cheaper and easier than a lawsuit." Widespread acceptance of this fallacy creates a coarse subculture of obnoxious, "assertive" manipulators who, like spoiled children, use their knowledge of how to make a stink as a primary coping skill in order to get what they want when they want it.

Othering

A badly corrupted, discriminatory argument from ethos where facts, arguments, experiences or objections are arbitrarily disregarded, ignored or put down without serious consideration because those involved "are not like us," or "don't think like us." "It's OK for Mexicans to earn a buck an hour in the maquiladoras. If it happened here I'd call it brutal exploitation and daylight robbery but south of the border, down Mexico way the economy is different and they're not like us." Or, "You claim that life must be really terrible over there for terrorists to ever think of blowing themselves up with suicide vests just to make a point, but always remember that they're different from us. They don't think about life and death the same way we do."

Shifting the Burden of Proof

A classic fallacy of logos that challenges an opponent to disprove a claim rather than asking the person making the claim to defend his/her own argument. E.g., "These days space-aliens are everywhere among us, masquerading as true humans, even right here on campus! I dare you to prove it isn't so! See? You can't! You admit it! That means what I say has to be true. Most probably, you're one of them, since you're soft on space aliens!"

Half Truth

A corrupt argument from logos, the fallacy of consciously selecting, collecting and sharing only that evidence that supports one's own standpoint, telling the strict truth but deliberately minimizing or omitting important key details in order to falsify the larger picture and support a false conclusion. (e.g. "The truth is that Bangladesh is one of the world's fastest-growing countries and can boast of a young, ambitious and hard-working population, a family-positive culture, a delightful, warm climate of tropical beaches and swaying palms where it never snows, low-cost medical and dental care, a vibrant faith tradition and a multitude of places of worship, an exquisite, world-class local cuisine and a swinging nightclub scene. Taken together, all these solid facts clearly prove that Bangladesh is one of the world's most desirable places for young families to work and raise a family.")

A Priori

A corrupt argument that starts with a given, pre-set belief, dogma, doctrine, scripture verse, "fact" or conclusion and then searching for any reasonable or reasonable-sounding argument to rationalize, defend or justify it.

Excluded Middle

A corrupted argument from logos that proposes that since a little of something is good, more must be better (or that if less of something is good, none at all is even better). E.g., "If eating an apple a day is good for you, eating an all-apple diet is even better!" or "If a low-fat diet prolongs your life, a no-fat diet should make you live forever!"

Sending the Wrong Message

A dangerous fallacy of logos that attacks a given statement, argument or action, no matter how good, true or necessary, because it will "send the wrong message." In effect, those who use this fallacy are openly confessing to fraud and admitting that the truth will destroy the fragile web of illusion that has been created by their lies. E.g., "Actually, we haven't a clue about how to deal with this crisis, but if we publicly admit it we'll be sending the wrong message."

Either/Or Reasoning

A fallacy of logos that falsely offers only two possible options even though a broad range of possible alternatives, variations, and combinations are always readily available. E.g., "Either you're in with us all the way or you're a hostile and must be destroyed! What's it gonna be?"

Essentializing

A fallacy of logos that proposes a person or thing "is what it is and that's all that it is," and at its core will always be the way it is right now. "All terrorists are monsters, and will still be terrorist monsters even if they live to be 100," or "'The poor you will always have with you,' so any effort to eliminate poverty is pointless." Also refers to the fallacy of arguing that something is a certain way "by nature," an empty claim that no amount of proof can refute. "Americans are cold and greedy by nature," or "Women are naturally better cooks than men."

Circular Reasoning

A fallacy of logos where A is because of B, and B is because of A, e.g., "You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job." Also refers to falsely arguing that something is true by repeating the same statement in different words. E.g., "The witchcraft problem is the most urgent spiritual crisis in the world today. Why? Because witches threaten our very eternal salvation."

Snow Job

A fallacy of logos, "proving" a claim by overwhelming an audience ("snowing them under") with mountains of true but marginally relevant documents, graphs, words, facts, numbers, information and statistics that look extremely impressive but which the intended audience cannot be expected to understand or properly evaluate.

Confirmation Bias

A fallacy of logos, recognizing the fact that one always tends to notice, search out, select and share evidence that confirms one's own standpoint and beliefs, as opposed to contrary evidence. This fallacy is how "fortune tellers" work. In contemporary times Confirmation Bias is most often seen in the tendency of various audiences to "curate their political environments, subsisting on one-sided information diets...." Confirmation Bias means that people tend to seek out and follow solely those media outlets that confirm their common ideological and cultural biases, sometimes to an degree that leads a the false (implicit or even explicit) conclusion that "everyone" agrees with that bias and that anyone who doesn't is "crazy," "looney," evil or "radicalized."

Shopping Hungry

A fallacy of pathos, a variety of Playing on Emotions, making stupid but important decisions (or being prompted, manipulated or forced to "freely" take public or private decisions that may be later regretted but are difficult to reverse) "in the heat of the moment" when under the influence of strong emotion (hunger, fear, lust, anger, sadness, regret, fatigue, even joy, love or happiness). The Patriot Act and the creation of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security could be attributed to America's "shopping hungry" immediately after 9/11.

Reductio ad Hitlerum

A highly problematic contemporary historical-revisionist contention that the argument "That's just what Hitler said (or would have said, or would have done)" is a fallacy, an instance of the Ad Hominem argument and/or Guilt by Association. Whether the Reductio ad Hitlerum can be considered an actual fallacy or not seems to fundamentally depend on one's personal view of Hitler and the gravity of his crimes.

Alternative Truth

A newly-famous contemporary fallacy of logos, denying the resilience of facts or truth as such. Writer Hannah Arendt, in her The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) warned that "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists." Journalist Leslie Grass (2017) writes in her Blog Reachoutrecovery.com, "Is there someone in your life who insists things happened that didn't happen, or has a completely different version of events in which you have the facts? It's a form of mind control and is very common among families dealing with substance and behavior problems." She suggests that such "Alternate Facts" work to "put you off balance," "control the story," and "make you think you're crazy."

Gaslighting

A recently-prominent, vicious fallacy of logic, invalidating a person's own knowledge and experiences by deliberately twisting or distorting known facts, memories, scenes, events and evidence in order to disorient a vulnerable opponent and to make him or her doubt his/her reason. E.g., "Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own eyes?" This fallacy is named after British playwright Patrick Hamilton's 1938 stage play "Gas Light," also known as "Angel Street."

Paternalism

A serious fallacy of ethos, arbitrarily tut-tutting, dismissing or ignoring another's arguments or concerns as "childish" or "immature;" taking a condescending attitude of superiority toward opposing standpoints or toward opponents themselves. E.g., "Your argument against the war is so infantile. Try approaching the issue like an adult for a change."

Blood is Thicker than Water

A statement, argument or action is automatically regarded as true, correct and above challenge because one is related to, knows and likes, or is on the same team or belongs to the same religion, union, or other group as the individual involved.

Scare Tactics

A variety of Playing on Emotions, a corrupted argument from pathos. E.g., "If you don't shut up and do what I say we're all gonna die! In this moment of crisis, we can't afford the luxury of criticizing or trying to second-guess my decisions when our very lives and freedom are in peril! Instead, we need to be united as one!"

Mortification

An ancient fallacy of logos, trying to "beat the flesh into submission" by extreme exercise or ascetic practices, deliberate starvation or infliction of pain, denying the undeniable fact that discomfort and pain exist for the purpose of warning of lasting damage to the body. Extreme examples of this fallacy are various forms of self-flagellation such as practiced by the New Mexico "Penitentes" during Holy Week or by Shia devotees during Muharram. More common contemporary manifestations of this fallacy are extreme "insanity" exercise regimes not intended for normal health, fitness or competitive purposes but just to "toughen" or "punish" the body. Certain pop-nutritional theories and diets seem based on this fallacy.

Appeal To Heaven

An ancient, extremely dangerous fallacy of claiming to know the mind of God (or History or a higher power) who has allegedly ordered or anointed, supports or approves of one's own country, standpoint, or actions so that no further justification is required and no serious challenge is possible. (E.g., "God ordered me to kill my children," or "We need to take away your land, since God [or Scripture, or Manifest Destiny, or Fate, or Heaven] has given it to us as our own.") This vicious (and blasphemous) fallacy has been the cause of endless bloodshed over history.

Dog-Whistle Politics

An extreme version of reductionism and sloganeering in the public sphere, a contemporary fallacy of logos and pathos in which a brief phrase or slogan of the hour, e.g., "Abortion," "The 1%," "9/11," "Zionism," "Islamic Terrorism," "Fascism," "Communism," "Big government," "Tax and tax and spend and spend," "Gun violence," "Gun control," "Freedom of choice," "Throw 'em in jail!" etc. is flung out as "red meat" that automatically provokes one's audience into a barking, foaming-at-the-mouth rage. "Debaters" of differing political shades simply blow a selection of discursive "dog whistles" at their audience instead of addressing, refuting or even bothering to listen to each other's arguments, a situation resulting in allegations that the political Right and Left are speaking "different languages."

Red Herring

An irrelevant argument, attempting to mislead an audience by bringing up an unrelated but emotionally loaded issue. E.g., "In regard to my several bankruptcies and recent indictment for corruption let's be straight up about what's really important: Terrorism! Vote for me and I'll fight those terrorists anywhere in the world!"

Ableism

Arguing that because someone is intellectually slower, physically or emotionally less capable, less ambitious, less aggressive, less young or less healthy (or simply less cautious or less lucky) than others, that person "naturally" deserves less in life and may be freely victimized by those who are stronger, greedier, more powerful and more gifted (or who simply have more immediate felt need for money, often involving some form of addiction). "Life is rough and you gotta take what you want." "That's free enterprise." "That's the way life is!" or similar.

Nihilism

Blindly rejecting what exists in favor of what could be; the infantile disorder of romanticizing anarchy, chaos (an ideology sometimes called political "Chaos Theory"), disorder, "permanent revolution," or change for change's sake.

Alphabet Soup

Fallacy in which a person inappropriately overuses acronyms, abbreviations, form numbers and arcane insider "shop talk" primarily to prove to an audience that s/he "speaks their language" and is "one of them" and to shut out, confuse or impress outsiders.

Venting

In the Venting fallacy a person argues that her/his words are or ought to be exempt from criticism or consequence because the person was "only venting," even though this very admission implies that the one "venting" was, at long last, freely expressing their true, heartfelt, and uncensored opinion about the matter in question. This same fallacy applies to minimizing, denying the significance of or excusing other forms of frank, unguarded or uninhibited offensive expression as mere "Locker-room Talk," "Alpha-male Speech" or nothing but cute, adorable "Bad-boy Talk."

The "F-Bomb"

The adolescent fallacy of attempting to strengthen one's argument by gratuitous use of sexual, obscene, vulgar, crude or profane language when such language does nothing to make any argument stronger (other than perhaps to create a sense of identity with certain young male or "urban" audiences). This fallacy also includes adding gratuitous sex scenes or "adult" language to an otherwise unrelated novel or movie, sometimes simply to avoid a dreaded "G" rating. Historically, this fallacy was deeply implicated in the crime of lynching, in which false, racist accusations against a Black or minority victim were almost always salacious in nature and the sensation involved was successfully used to whip up public emotion to a murderous pitch.

Appeal To Tradition

The ancient fallacy that a standpoint, situation or action is right, proper and correct simply because it has "always" been that way, because people have "always" thought that way, or because it was that way long ago (most often meaning in the audience members' youth or childhood, not before) and still continues to serve one particular group very well. The opposite of this is The Appeal to Novelty , e.g., "It's NEW, and [therefore it must be] improved!" or "This is the very latest discovery--it has to be better."

Scapegoating

The ancient fallacy that whenever something goes wrong there's always someone other than oneself to blame. Although sometimes this fallacy is a practical denial of randomness or chance itself, today it is more often a mere insurance-driven business decision. The term "Scapegoating" is also used to refer to the tactic of casting collective blame on marginalized or scorned "Others," e.g., "The Jews are to blame!" A particularly corrupt and cynical example of scapegoating is the fallacy of Blaming the Victim, in which one falsely casts the blame for one's own evil or questionable actions on those affected. "He was driving me crazy and I had warned him!"

Playing on Emotion

The classic fallacy of pure argument from pathos, ignoring facts and evoking emotion alone. E.g., "If you don't agree that witchcraft is a major problem just shut up, close your eyes for a moment and picture in your mind all those poor moms crying bitter tears for their innocent tiny children whose cozy little beds and happy tricycles lie all cold and abandoned, just because of those wicked old witches! Let's string'em all up!"

Post Hoc Argument

The classic paranoiac fallacy of attributing an imaginary causality to random coincidences, concluding that just because something happens close to, at the same time as, or just after something else, the first thing is caused by the second. E.g., "AIDS first emerged as a problem back in the very same era when Disco music was becoming popular--that's too much of a coincidence: It proves that Disco caused AIDS!" Correlation does not equal causation.

Moral Licensing

The contemporary ethical fallacy that one's consistently moral life, good behavior or recent extreme suffering or sacrifice earns him/her the right to commit an immoral act without repercussions, consequences or punishment. "I've been good all year, so one bad won't matter," or "After what I've been through, God knows I need this."

MYOB (Mind Your Own Business)

The contemporary fallacy of arbitrarily prohibiting or terminating any discussion of one's own standpoints or behavior, no matter how absurd, dangerous, evil or offensive, by drawing a phony curtain of privacy around oneself and one's actions. "Yeah, I killed my baby. So what? Butt out! It wasn't your kid, so it's none of your damn business!" Rational discussion is cut off because "it is none of your business!"

Romantic Rebel

The contemporary fallacy of claiming Truth or validity for one's standpoint solely or primarily because one is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant "orthodoxy," the current Standard Model, conventional wisdom or Political Correctness, or whatever may be the Bandwagon of the moment; a corrupt argument from ethos. "Back in the day the scientific establishment thought that the world was flat, that was until Columbus proved them wrong! Now they want us to believe that ordinary water is nothing but H2O. Are you going to believe them?"

Complex Question

The contemporary fallacy of demanding a direct answer to a question that cannot be answered without first analyzing or challenging the basis of the question itself. "Just answer me 'yes' or 'no': Should we just let people get away with murder by not having a death penalty?"

Lying with Statistics

The contemporary fallacy of misusing true figures and numbers to "prove" unrelated claims. (e.g. "College tuition costs have actually never been lower. When expressed as a percentage of the national debt, the cost of getting a college education is actually far lower today than it was back in 1965!").

Big Lie Technique

The contemporary fallacy of repeating a lie, fallacy, slogan, talking-point, nonsense-statement or deceptive half-truth over and over in different forms (particularly in the media) until it becomes part of daily discourse and people accept it without further proof or evidence. Sometimes the bolder and more outlandish the Big Lie becomes the more credible it seems to a willing, most often angry audience.

Reductionism

The fallacy of deceiving an audience by giving simple answers or bumper-sticker slogans in response to complex questions, especially when appealing to less educated or unsophisticated audiences. E.g., "If the glove doesn't fit, you must vote to acquit." Or, "Vote for Snith. He'll bring back jobs!" In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, ("STEM subjects") reductionism is intentionally practiced to make intractable problems computable, e.g., the well-known humorous suggestion, "First, let's assume the cow is a sphere!".

Default Bias

The logical fallacy of automatically favoring or accepting a situation simply because it exists right now and arguing that any other alternative is mad, unthinkable, impossible, or at least would take too much effort, expense, stress or risk to change.

Just Plain Folks

This corrupt modern argument from ethos argues to a less-educated or rural audience that the one arguing is "just plain folks" who is a "plain talker," "says what s/he is thinking," "scorns political correctness," someone who "you don't need a dictionary to understand" and who thinks like the audience and is thus worthy of belief, unlike some member of the fancy-talking, latte-sipping Left Coast Political Elite, some "double-domed professor," "inside-the-beltway Washington bureaucrat," "tree-hugger" or other despised outsider who "doesn't think like we do" or "doesn't share our traditional values."

Token Endorsement

When one member of a group or race "vouches" for the entire group and gives a stamp of approval to a person or action as "not racist" or okay with the entire group. "Individual A has been accused of anti-Semitism, but Individual B is Jewish and says Individual A is not anti-Semitic, and the implication of course is that we can believe Individual B because, being Jewish, he has special knowledge of anti- Semitism."

Moving the Goalposts

A fallacy of logos, demanding certain proof or evidence, a certain degree of support or a certain number of votes to decide an issue, and then when this is offered, demanding even more, different or better support in order to validate an argument, establish a fact, approve a decision, or ensure one's victory.

The Silent Majority Fallacy

A variety of the argument from ignorance, this fallacy, famously enunciated by disgraced American President Richard Nixon, alleges special knowledge of a hidden "silent majority" of voters (or of the population in general) that stands in support of an otherwise unpopular leader and his/her policies, contrary to the repeated findings of polls, surveys and popular vote totals. In an extreme case, the leader arrogates to him/herself the title of the "voice of the voiceless."

Appeal to Nature

The contemporary romantic fallacy of ethos (that of "Mother Nature") that if something is "natural" it has to be good, healthy and beneficial. E.g., "Our premium herb tea is lovingly brewed from the finest freshly-picked and lovingly dried natural T. Radicans leaves." This fallacy also applies to arguments alleging that something is "unnatural," or "against nature" and thus evil.

Blind Loyalty

The dangerous fallacy that an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own "side," team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right. This is over-reliance on authority, a gravely corrupted argument from ethos that puts loyalty above truth, above one's own reason and above conscience.

Non Sequitur

The deluded fallacy of offering reasons or conclusions that have no logical connection to the argument at hand (e.g. "The reason I flunked your course is because the U. S. government is now putting out purple five-dollar bills! Purple!"). Occasionally involves the breathtaking arrogance of claiming to have special knowledge of why God, fate, karma or the Universe is doing certain things. "This week's earthquake was obviously meant to punish those people for their great wickedness."

False Analogy

The fallacy of incorrectly comparing one thing to another in order to draw a false conclusion. E.g., "Just like a cat needs to prowl, a normal adult can't be tied down to one single lover."

Straw Man

The fallacy of setting up a phony, weak, extreme or ridiculous parody of an opponent's argument and then proceeding to knock it down or reduce it to absurdity with a rhetorical wave of the hand. "Vegetarians say animals have feelings like you and me. Ever seen a cow laugh at a Shakespeare comedy? Vegetarianism is nonsense!" A too-common example of this fallacy is that of highlighting the most absurd, offensive, silly or violent examples in a mass movement or demonstration, e.g. "Tree huggers" for environmentalists, "bra burners" for feminists, or "rioters" when there are a dozen violent crazies in a peaceful demonstration of thousands or tens of thousands, and then portraying these extreme examples as "poster children" for the entire movement in order to condemn it with a wave of the hand.

Overgeneralization

A fallacy of logos where a broad generalization that is agreed to be true is offered as overriding all particular cases, particularly special cases requiring immediate attention. E.g., "Doctor, you say that this time of year a flu vaccination is essential. But I would counter that ALL vaccinations are essential" (implying that I'm not going to give special attention to getting the flu shot). Or, attempting to refute "Black Lives Matter" by replying, "All Lives Matter," the latter undeniably true but still a fallacious overgeneralization in that specific and urgent context. "Overgeneralization" also includes the the Pars pro Toto Fallacy,. the stupid but common fallacy of incorrectly applying one or two true examples to all cases. E.g., a minority person who commits a particularly horrifying crime, and whose example is then used to smear the reputation of the entire group, or a government publishes special lists of crimes committed by groups who are supposed to be hated, e.g., Jews, or undocumented immigrants. Famously, the case of Willie Horton was used in this manner in the 1988 election to smear African Americans and by extension, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

Actions have Consequences

A person falsely describing an imposed punishment or penalty as a "consequence" of another's negative act. A corrupt argument connecting a negative event to laws of cosmic inevitability, i.e., God's justice, Fate, Karma, Destiny or Reality Itself. "That's what you get for living your life that way."

Worst-Case Fallacy

A pessimistic fallacy by which one's reasoning is based on an improbable, far-fetched or even completely imaginary worst-case scenario rather than on reality. This plays on pathos (fear) rather than reason, and is often politically motivated. "What if armed terrorists were to attack your county grain elevator tomorrow morning at dawn? Are you ready to fight back? Better stock up on assault rifles and ammunition today, just in case!" See also Scare Tactics.