Hey, what’s up guys! I thought I’d start off today by sharing a comment that Adrienne sent me after listening to the podcast episode where we talk about the Either/Or Fallacy. Check this out:
“Hey, Just listened to the either/or fallacy episode and it reminded me of a conversation my friends and I were having the other day. One friend’s car broke down and would cost more to repair than it’s worth. Being a family of four, they have been planning on upgrading her car to a minivan for a while, but we’re hoping to continue saving and hold on for another couple years until the used car market calms down. With needing a new car much sooner than planned, she said they were looking at 2 options, either they spend $30-40k on a new vehicle or they go down to one car for a couple years and just plan to let her husband take the car to work during the day while she and the kids stay at the house all day. Is that really the only 2 options or are there other possibilities like buying a more conservative car to get them through this period or potentially taking out a loan.
We all talked over how sometimes it’s easy to convince even ourselves that there are only 2 options in a given situation with one of them being highly undesirable rather than taking a step back and asking if those are really the only 2 options. Thanks for the podcast! It’s great to have short, thought provoking episodes to chew on as I manage a busy home. I appreciate you!”
I knew it, y’all. I knew that once you started to learn the fallacies, you’d start to see them everywhere! Adrienne, thank you so much for taking the time to send me that message! I love it that families are learning to think well and are doing it together!
In fact, I’ve got an idea that I’m thinking about and I want to run it by my podcast listeners and get some feedback from you about whether you think this would be valuable to you, so stick around at the end of today’s episode and I’ll tell you about it!
Ok, so our New Fallacy today is going to sound kind of funny, but it’s a really simple one. It’s called the Fallacy Fallacy, or sometimes you’ll hear it called an Argument from Fallacy. I know, I know…Stick with me here. The Fallacy Fallacy happens when someone disregards another person’s argument b/c they did a poor job arguing it or b/c they used a fallacy when presenting it.
Here’s an example: What if I said, “We should eat healthy foods b/c the latest TikTok influencer said we should!” Well, by now, you’ll recognize this as a faulty Appeal to Authority or Appeal to Celebrity. But just b/c I’m committing a fallacy, does that really mean that this statement is false? No, it doesn’t. We should be eating healthy foods, but I need to find a better argument for why we should be doing so.
The tricky thing about the Fallacy Fallacy is that someone could use bad thinking but still be right. Just because they used a fallacy in their reasoning or in their argument doesn’t automatically make their argument false or invalid! Have you ever heard the saying, “even a broken clock is right twice a day?” Well, that’s kind of like the Fallacy Fallacy. It’s almost like they’re right, but totally on accident. This is why I challenge you all the time to truly THINK about what you’re hearing and to ask the question, “Is that really true?”! B/c they could be arguing it poorly and it could still be true. Or, someone could be arguing a point beautifully and totally logically, but it could still be wrong. You have to filter it through a brain cell before either dismissing or believing the things you hear.
As simple as this fallacy may seem, this is actually a very important one for you to understand, and here’s why: as someone who is learning about fallacies…you are one of the most likely to fall prey to committing this fallacy! Does that surprise you? The more you learn about fallacies, the more you’ll start to recognize them, and your natural tendency may be to automatically discount what the other person is saying just b/c they’re using a fallacy. But that’s not using your brain cells. It’s fine to recognize when a fallacy has been used, but you have to go one step further and think about whether the thing they’re saying is actually true or false, regardless of whether they’ve used a fallacy. It can be tricky, and this requires humility. You can’t get on a high horse and just say, “You’re wrong!” You have to actually take the time to THINK.
Another example of someone making the Fallacy Fallacy might sound like this: Devan says, “I believe in God because I’ve always believed in God.” And John says, “ha! That’s circular reasoning, which just proves there is no good argument to believe in God and therefore there is no God!” Well, is it really true that there is no God just b/c Devan used poor logic in his argument? No, of course not.
So, the question to ask yourself when you’re faced with the Fallacy Fallacy - especially if you catch yourself doing it! - is this: “Does the fact that they used a fallacy make what they’re saying wrong?” *repeat*
Ok, so here’s my idea I was talking about at the beginning of this episode: I am very burdened to help teach the next generation how to think, and how to think WELL. So I’m considering creating a monthly subscription where I’ll teach the fundamentals of what it means to think well. Learning the fallacies is fun, but there’s a lot more to learning how to think. I want to walk through that in a short, mini course. Then, each month, I want to send out a resource to help you practice those thinking skills. For example, it may be links to two different articles that cover the same topic, but that are written from two different points of view.
And you, or you and your teens, will reach each article and I’ll give you a list of questions to help you think about those two articles WELL. It’ll help you identify the world view and the biases of each author. It’ll help you recognize fact from opinion. It’ll help you think deeply about what the article is saying and whether or not you agree with it. My whole goal is to help people be able to develop the skill & wisdom to think WELL about the media that they’re being exposed to. I envision this being a way for parents to help their high schoolers develop this skill, but also for adults to practice thinking well!
Anyways, I’m thinking of making it a monthly or yearly subscription that wouldn’t cost much but would hopefully fill a really important hole. If this is something you’d be interested in, let me know!! Please hit me up on facebook, instagram or send me an email at [email protected] and let me know if this is something you’d be interested in.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
