4 ms·

Pointing out fallacies in conversation, both online or IRL, is, and always will be, pointless. That is not because people don't care about being logical. Droppi

Pointing out fallacies in conversation, both online or IRL, is, and always will be, pointless. That is not because people don't care about being logical. Dropping fallacies is just lazy and makes you sound like a dick. It's lazy because you're trying to solve the problem without doing the work. It's a shortcut. The knowledge of fallacies is useful to identify common flaws in arguments and is particularly useful for you to construct a better, more persuasive counter-argument. No one should expect the "opposing side" to do that for them. You can't just shout "strawman!" and drop the mike. That's not how a conversation works.

SantalBlush 4y ago
>Dropping fallacies is just lazy and makes you sound like a dick. Yes, this happened in the tragic case of Fallacy Man [0], who demonstrated that simply announcing a fallacy is not a sufficient argument. [0] https://existentialcomics.com/comic/9 https://existentialcomics.com/comic/9
throw0101a 4y ago
> No one should expect the "opposing side" to do that for them. You can't just shout "strawman!" and drop the mike. That's not how a conversation works. It can be a useful heuristic to determine how much effort you want to expend on a topic with someone else. If someone is simply putting forward tu quoque / ad hominem statements, then pointing this out and asking if there are any other reasons can perhaps lead to focusing on more 'productive' areas of disagreement.
- bananamerica 4y ago
  It's useful if you keep it to yourself and use it to redirect your own reasoning. If you say out loud that it's actually a fallacy, not only you won't convince anyone you'll immediately look like a dick. Guaranteed.
BeFlatXIII 4y ago
Pointing out fallacies doesn't work because doing so itself uses the fallacy of "I have proven you wrong, therefore I am right" when the most likely truth is both are horrendously off-base.

SantalBlush 4y ago

>Dropping fallacies is just lazy and makes you sound like a dick. Yes, this happened in the tragic case of Fallacy Man [0], who demonstrated that simply announcing a fallacy is not a sufficient argument. [0] https://existentialcomics.com/comic/9 https://existentialcomics.com/comic/9

throw0101a 4y ago

> No one should expect the "opposing side" to do that for them. You can't just shout "strawman!" and drop the mike. That's not how a conversation works. It can be a useful heuristic to determine how much effort you want to expend on a topic with someone else. If someone is simply putting forward tu quoque / ad hominem statements, then pointing this out and asking if there are any other reasons can perhaps lead to focusing on more 'productive' areas of disagreement.

bananamerica 4y ago
It's useful if you keep it to yourself and use it to redirect your own reasoning. If you say out loud that it's actually a fallacy, not only you won't convince anyone you'll immediately look like a dick. Guaranteed.

BeFlatXIII 4y ago

Pointing out fallacies doesn't work because doing so itself uses the fallacy of "I have proven you wrong, therefore I am right" when the most likely truth is both are horrendously off-base.