Show Notes The Appeal to Anonymous Authority is committed when someone cites an authority to back up a claim, but the authority is unnamed, vague or similarly uncheckable. Trump We started out by talking about this clip of Trump claiming the best analysts predicted a stock market crash if Biden was elected Then we...
Show Notes The Accelerating Truth Fallacy is committed when someone uses their own previous assertions as evidence or proof that those assertions are true. Trump We started out with these clips of Trump claiming with more and more certainty that Robert Mueller wanted to be his FBI Director: Mark's British Politics Corner Mark talked about...
Show Notes The No True Scotsman Fallacy is committed when your existing definition of a particular group is challenged by a member who doesn't fit the criteria. Rather than adjust the definition, the offending group member is redefined as a non-member of the group. The name comes from an example given in...
Show Notes The Rhetorical Question Fallacy is a way of accusing people of something while appearing to be 'just asking questions'. Often the questions being asked have already been debunked or already have a satisfactory answer. Trump We started out with this clip of Trump accusing healthcare workers of stealing PPE during a...
Show Notes The Hedging Fallacy is committed when someone changes their story or point of view and then acts like nothing has changed and they always thought like that. Trump We started out with this clip of Trump answering a journalist who asked him why his tone shifted and he started taking the...
Show Notes The Appeal to Flattery Fallacy is committed when someone uses flattery in the place of an argument when convincing someone to accept their point of view. Trump We started out with this Trump tweet about A$AP Rocky: Just spoke to @KanyeWest about his friend A$AP Rocky’s incarceration. I will be calling the...
Show Notes The Wrong Tool Fallacy is committed when someone tries to present evidence for their argument, but the method or tool they are using isn't designed to show what they claim it shows. Trump We started out with this clip of Trump bragging about the Dow Jones: Then we looked at this clip...
Show Notes The Ad Hominem Circumstantial Fallacy is committed when, instead of addressing someone's argument, you question the reason that they are making the argument, often suggesting that their circumstances mean that they benefit in some way from such an argument. Trump We started out with this tweet from Donald dismissing John Bolton's...
Show Notes This is a special episode inspired by a Twitter conversation. It's only 20 minutes and has none of the usual sections, so the notes below are simply links to things I talked about in the episode. The twitter conversation that inspire this bonus episode. Trump's tweet about executing babies: Senate Democrats just...
Show Notes Cherry Picking is a logical fallacy in which the arguer ignores a large amount of evidence which casts doubt on their claim, carefully selecting only the parts which make their claim sound plausible. Where there is controversy on an issue, data to support both sides, or ambiguous reports which...