Show Notes Moving the Goalposts is such a common tactic that I’m sure everyone has come across it at some point. When someone makes an argument; you refute that argument with valid logic; and then they move on to a different argument without acknowledging that their first one failed, they’ve just moved...
Show Notes Trump likes to talk about ‘many people’ doing, thinking or saying something, to give the impression that whatever they are doing, thinking or saying is correct. In doing so, he is arguing from the popularity of an idea, rather than using evidence to show the idea is true. This...
Show Notes When supporting your claims by comparing two things, it's important to be consistent in terms of what you're actually comparing. By doing so you can ensure it is a fair comparison and your point can be supported. If you are not fair when setting up the parameters, and you...
Show Notes Non Sequitur is Latin for ‘does not follow’. Colloquially, non-sequitur tends to be used to mean a sentence which has no relation to the previous one, but in logical fallacy terms, that would more likely be a Red Herring fallacy. For our purposes, Non-Sequitur describes a situation where the conclusion...
Show Notes The False Dilemma fallacy is depressingly common, and quite easy to spot. It occurs when someone suggests or implies there are only two possible choices or outcomes, and if you don’t choose one then the other is inevitable. This is not a fallacy if there are in fact only two...
Show Notes The fallacy of Moral Equivalence is committed when someone argues that because the actions of two people or groups are morally equivalent (whether they are or not), those people or groups are just as bad as each other. The examples used in this episode will be coming soon. Here are the...
Show Notes When someone makes a strong argument that’s hard to refute, don’t despair. Simply pretend they made a different argument, that’s easier to knock down - you could massively oversimplify what they said, misrepresent the point of their argument, or just put words in their mouth. Congratulations! You’ve just constructed...
Show notes The Genetic Fallacy doesn’t have anything to do with genes. Rather, it relates to the ‘genesis’, or origin, of an argument. When someone commits the Genetic Fallacy they are basing their decision about whether a claim is true or false on who is making the claim, or where it...