You ever been to work or maybe a message board when someone has an argument and proves their point in such a way that you’re left scratching your head? Or maybe you have siblings that have triumphantly left the room and you don’t know why: it feels like they won but you’re not sure? Or maybe, you’re the culprit of using tactics that make you feel icky when arguing but for all intents and purposes it looks like you always win. We all do it and often you see it on The Internets more than anywhere else. Here then is my list of argument mishaps that don’t prove your point–even if your point is technically right on.
- Well, You’re A Liar and a Jerk.
Even if you’re right it doesn’t mean what the person is saying is wrong. Instead you’re take everything they’re saying and lumping it under their character to disprove it. That doesn’t dismantle any argument: it ignores it. - Sounds like you’ve got that junk from the Clintons
Hey the Clintons might have said it but their character has nothing to do with the correctness of the statement. - Well, you can’t trust what George Bush says: he has a history of working for Big Oil Companies.
Heck, maybe Bush was even a criminal and a murderer. It doesn’t matter that the person has done a lot of wrong in the past: his or her statement stands apart from that. - McFarlane, Lucas, Perez Hilton and Stan the Man Lee would say you’re wrong.
Ooooh: they’re big and famous and agree with you but that doesn’t mean your position is right. Worst, these people may not even be experts in the topic you’re talking about! Honestly if there’s equally famous people (and even equally expert people) that disagree with your position then what you’re doing is pretty much name-dropping uselessness. - The majority of Movie Lovers would disagree.
Okay, that’s pretty interesting information but it still doesn’t prove the argument wrong. Just because the majority of any group holds a certain position it doesn’t make it right or wrong: it just makes it popular. - Either we go to war with Iran or we face a WW3.
It may very well be going to war with Iran has nothing to do with World War 3 but everything to do with what keeps you up at night. - Well, when you’re a democrat/republican, you’re happy and that means you really enjoy the US of A.
Just because it makes you happy doesn’t mean its right. - If you convict this man the justice system will come crashing down.
Not only is this a false dilemma but scaring me into your position? Is that really the way you want to win your argument? - If drugs weren’t against the law then our society wouldn’t be prohibited to use them!
This is just one horrendous circle-nothing good can come of this sort of arguing. - 75% of the online polls show that Americans are unhappy with Bush’s foreign policy.
We see this one in the news all the time. - You can’t prove that there is a God, therefore there isn’t.
See, this sort of thing makes no sense. Well, you can’t prove there is no God, therefore there is. - I’ve grown up in a Christian family, my parents are Christian and I have always been a Christian so its true
Not necessarily. My parents told me that you get head colds by not wearing socks. - I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat but right in the middle-which I know to be the correct place to be.
Wrong. Just because you’ve found some ground between the two camps doesn’t make your position any more right or wrong than the others. It just means you found a place to stand.
(And here are the technical terms and here is the original Bible Archive Post.)