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I think people instinctively refuse to parse analogies because it's too much work for too little reward. Practically every time somebody starts to use an anolog

by Meai 8y ago

I think people instinctively refuse to parse analogies because it's too much work for too little reward. Practically every time somebody starts to use an anology it becomes an anology battle because of course it wasn't perfect. Secondly it's like trying to prove a point by introducing a bunch of weird mental tricks. Yeah you might have a point there but it's rude to expect me to parse all this extra made up stuff you just throw at me. If you have a point, you can make it without an anology. I have the same opinion on fallacies, practically every single time somebody says "wait, you just used a fallacy" it's wrong, it doesn't matter or he himself just used five fallacies by pointing that out. It's an endless battle over magic words that have so much social weight behind them that using them should be forbidden in any serious debate. That's my personal, very unpopular opinion.

emodendroket 8y ago
If you don't want to do work understanding someone's argument then I'd suggest not participating in a debate; there is no way to present an argument that makes consuming it completely mindless. And really, it doesn't take that much work to understand "if we really believed that principle was true for ANY political philosophy then it'd be just as true for the Nazis as it is for whatever group you're supporting." As far as logical fallacies go: I don't like the Internet style of just rattling off a bunch of logical fallacies to dismiss an argument, but I think it's fair to say "this argument is such-and-such a fallacy because of X, Y, and Z." If we took your suggestions I don't know how anyone would have a substantive debate at all.