Even More Fallacies! | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

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There's lots of... um... let's say "discussion" on the web, and I think we can all agree that it's not always constructive. You may have seen our Fallacies episode, in which we tried to help internet arguers make more solid, logical arguments. So to kick off the new year, we're offering a few more ideas to help you argue better on the internet in 2015! Check out our second installment of our field guide to Bad Arguments, and let us know what you think!

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"Dream Of Autumn" by Night Shift Master

"Dizor" by Outsider

"Lets go back to the rock" by Outsider

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[DeFaulty]

Goalpost shifting example: never enough transitional fossils for creationists.

[KeithBroni]

"The internet is one of nuances natural predators." Amazing.

[SitcomedyCD]

I have a collection of all the common logical fallacies mounted on my wall in the form of a pretty poster

[DragoSonicMile]

"Please! If we have to negotiate the terms of the negotiation, we'll never get anywhere."

[Nenie]

Damn, I was raised up then immediately disappointed it wasn't going to be about cereal. I've not listened to Serial so I was much more interested in Cereal. 

[Naltia]

Yay, more of these!  I love these!

Here are some requests I have for fallacies that I see constantly:

*Slippery Slope: the assumption that one change will lead to other, often more extreme, changes with no evidence to back this up.

*Anecdotal: a single or small sample that is used as evidence, despite the fact that it is just as likely to be an exception rather than the rule.  This one is only a fallacy when not combined with more substantial evidence, such as statistics.

*Worse Problems: also known as "Relative Privation, " or "Starving Children in Africa, " it is the assumption that we can ignore and dismiss an argument because there are more severe and "worse" things to worry about in the world.

*Red Herring:  a type of straw man where you introduce an unrelated argument in order to distract from the current one.

*Bandwagon:  also known as "Argumentum ad populum" or "appeal to the people" this is the assumption that something must be true because it is popular and many people believe it

I hope to see these in the future, so I can use them in my own debates.  :D

[MagicTurtle]

Never realized how frequently people do the goal-post shift fallacy when I'm arguing with them, until now. Now I can call them out on it :P I love these fallacy videos, by the way. 

[sporekudo]

Please can you make more of these man? I really enjoy learning about this stuff.

[Second_UNIT]

The moments when I realize that schools are genuinely teaching students to regularly use the sharpshooter fallacy to make their essays or paragraphs seem more correct even though there is other information that could potentially weaken the argument that is being made.
No wonder the Mel-CON is no longer used for juniors and above.

But quick question, is it still morally correct for student to learn how to put together arguments by using fallacies? I mean, the arguments themselves are weak and could be taken apart easily, and I feel like teaching the generations how to play dirty isn't right...
Though I guess playing dirty isn't always dirty to those using those means.

[Astronomater]

the biggest texas sharpshooter fallacy is when creationists say the universe is finely tuned for life on earth.

[Nodrog]

Except women seem disinterested in high risk labor work in general. Even in highly progressive countries in Europe, these jobs are still largely done by men. Saying it's "male dominated" implies that women want to do the work but " the menz" just won't let them, when the reality is women have largely not expressed much interest in these jobs (I don't blame them.) both of them are incorrect and are arguing two different things. One is arguing that we care about workplace deaths more with women, even though women tend to work jobs where workplace death is in fact an odity and the other assumes that women care for working in high risk jobs in the first place

[darksuperganon]

I don't know if there's an "Official Name" for this one, but I've seen it around and I was wondering if other people have similar experiences (or if I'm nuts).

I'm going to call it the "Tumblr Fallacy" because that's where I see it the most often. It's where someone takes a position that seems to support a group that is otherwise seen as un-attackable, whether they're veterans, widows, sufferers of some sort of illness, etc, in order to defend against counter-arguments or to seem as morally righteous.

For example, occasionally people on Tumblr will grossly exaggerate how many people are afflicted by a condition that renders a new update "dangerous". When Tumblr did a large change recently they added auto-playing videos, and many posters were concerned that it would trigger epileptic episodes (instead of admitting that they just didn't like the update!).

This also shows up in politics, ultimately resulting in elections (American elections, I can't speak for other countries) in which parties try to accumulate as many of these as possible (or perhaps that's just how politics works), hoping the other side will trip up in some way like a political Trap Card ("Ha ha, Democrats, for trying to attack conservative policies you've activated my trap card, 'American Veterans'! You will seem like veteran-hating hippies for the next 2 months!").

[cOmAtOrAn]

I love Idea Channel's commenters.  They're all so nice and thoughtful.

[FugiA]

holy shit the eyes on those other mikes are horrifying

[deldarel]

'we all know that coldplay is not a black metal band but rather a pop/rock equivalent of warm flat diet cafeine-free soda' this made my day

[Ularg]

I, for one, will continue to call everyone "literally Hitler" until I eventually get to call literally Hitler "literally Hitler".

Next I think you need to explain to your viewers that an example argument is not an invitation for viewers to argue with you. You can see that they don't understand how everything is not an invitation to an argument. 

I could probably say "I think Ketchup is a more agreeable condiment" which would somehow be construed as me invading the personal space of someone who wants to make an anti-feminism argument.

Live and let live, fools.

[raymondstantz]

More Fallacies!
please and thank you.

[STRDX]

i have to this as an assignment for a college course

[dennisd.]

Again, I appreciate you (all) for doing an episode on fallacies. Keep spreading the knowledge and inspiring thought. 

[ichbinein]

You were in Copenhagen this New Year?! Holy shit, i saw you! I didn't think it was you, but now i know that it was!
Aww man, i should have said hello!! :(