Fallacies AngelM

## **Fallacies:**

### **1.Appeal To Fear**

**Description:** X is presented, it causes fear. Therefore Y (which has some relationship to X) is true.

**Example:**

*I know where you live, and I have friends who like a good fire...*

*Those who do not rejoice will burn in hell.*

*If Mike heard you saying that, he would not be very happy.*

**Discussion:** Fear is a feeling when you know either something bad is gonna happen or when

you are a little kid who is afraid of the dark. Fear causes some people to either run away or

coward in a corner hoping everything will be fine.

### **2.Attack The Person**

**Description:** Attack the person in some way. For example:

Attack their expertise, questioning their qualifications or experience

Criticize their physical appearance or dress

Comment on their inability to make a good argument

Point out their junior status

Attack their values as being contrary to social norms

Interpret a minor error as major

Attach them to discredited others

**Example:**

*You are not qualified to make such a statement.*

*You would say that, wouldn't you.*

*And who do you think is going to believe you.*

*Of course you will defend your own department.*

*You mean you have not considered Wikkin's work? That is a serious omission.*

**Discussion:** Attacking the person is a type of distraction, forcing them to defend themselves from

an argument or much worse.

### **3.Conspiracy Theory**

**Description:** A is true. B is why the truth cannot be proven. So A is true.

**Example:**

e:*Flying saucers have landed. The government is covering it up, which is*

*why there is no evidence about it. Of course they deny it!*

*The senior managers in this company are bleeding it dry. But then they*

*control the accounts, which is why finances seems to be healthy.*

**Discussion:** Conspiracy Theories is a way of having or at least trying to have people believe in

specific types of myths or legends, it's a focus of attention that is moved by a person to disprove the

"proof"

### **4.False Analogy**

**Description:** X has property Y. Z  is like X. Z therefore has property Y.

**Example:**

*People are like dogs. They respond best to clear discipline.*

*This soap is like a dream. It lifts you up to a spiritual plane.*

*A school is not so different from a business. It needs a clear competitive*

*strategy that will lead to profitable growth.*

**Discussion:** Analogies are comparing one thing to another like A is like B, but in this instance A false analogy is

like a metaphor where A is B.

### 5.Poisoning The Well

**Description:** Discredit the other person before they speak. Or discredit the topic or argument that they may support.

**Example:**

*Well, Jane will tell you something else, but then she always lived on the other side of the tracks.*

*Mike doesn't have a degree, but he does speak nicely, doesn't he.*

*Only an idiot would consider Didactus to have any useful opinion.*

*Everybody knows that cold fusion is a proven impossibility. Jack: did you have something to say on this.*

**Discussion:** Discrediting people is reducing their authority, or making them feel like they are not that

they are below you.