Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Logical fallacy the infinity

I regularly try to propound principles of critical thinking here, looks like I'm going to have to issue another installment. One of the most annoying tactics of argumentation is called premise shifting, sometimes overlapping with the red herring fallacy. Example:

Simplicio: Black Lives Matter/anti-racism protestors haven't targeted universities because they are hypocrites. Why aren't they demanding that Yale and Brown change their names?

Sagrado: Anti-racism protesters were targeting universities long before the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent uprising. (By the way they have been demanding that Yale change its name, but Brown is in fact named for an abolitionist.)

Simplicio: (Five minutes later) Anti-racism protesters have targeted universities inappropriately, and they have overreacted by admitting guilt they don't really have.

It is obviously impossible to have a constructive conversation with such a person, who had no idea what he actually believes or what point he is trying to make. He's just trying to find some way of being obnoxious.

2 comments:

Don Quixote said...

I like the character of Jon Jonson. But the Sagrados out there are like twisted Jon Jonssons. They either can't or won't see.

My name is Jon Jonsson
I come from Wisconsin
I work in the lumbermills there
When I walk down the street
The people I meet
They ask me my name, and I say ...

My name is Jon Jonsson
I come from Wisconsin
I work in the lumbermills there
When I walk down the street
The people I meet
They ask me my name, and I say ...



You get the idea. We may be in the digital age, but their record player is broken. The Sagrados out there have one tune, it's the only tune they know--being obnoxious is a reasonable description--and the moment we step on their hamster wheel, we're lost too. Only consequences might possibly teach them a different tune. Maybe.

Cervantes said...

Don't confuse Simplicio with Sagrado.