Fallacies

Front 1

Smokescreen/red herring

Back 1

An irrelevant topic brought in to distract attention away from the real issue and to avoid addressing uncomfortable or complex points.

Front 2

Scare tactics/fear

Back 2

Suggesting or threatening that something frightening or scary will happen if the reader/listener doesn't go along with the suggested point of view.

Front 3

Subjectivist/relativist/wishful thinking

Back 3

Suggests that we can each create our own "reality" by ignoring or disbelieving facts if they make us feel bad or uncomfortable. In other words, deciding what is true, false, real or unreal. The subjectivist will say that if a statistic or fact is unpleasant or disagreeable that it can be dismissed as an "opinion."

Front 4

Two wrongs make a right

Back 4

This is suggesting that something should be accepted or rejected based on the fact that it balances out or is similar to a former wrong or evil. It asserts that one bad act plus another bad act equals harmony or right.

Front 5

Bandwagon/groupthink/peer pressure/common opinion

Back 5

This fallacy pushes the individual into following a group decision without employing individual thought. It suggests that something is right to do because it is popular, the group supports it, or you'll be accepted if you do it.

Front 6

Hasty generalization/ancedotal evidence

Back 6

This fallacy occurs when the writer/speaker draws a conclusion from a little bit of evidence-too small a sample. Occasionally, a speaker will do this on purpose in order to make his/her source sound credible when the overwhelming majority of research discredits his or her source.

Front 7

Appeal to outrage/scapegoating

Back 7

Making a decision based on the emotion of outrage. Scapegoating focuses that outrage on an innocent person or group who must then bear the brunt of the anger and the blame for some evil.

Front 8

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc/false cause ("after this, therefore because of this")

Back 8

This fallacy assumes that because one event preceded another, the earlier event caused the second to occur without providing a plausible and causal chain of explanation. It borders on superstition.

Front 9

Appeal to pity

Back 9

Another appeal to emotion by playing on sympathy and pity when they are not the relevant issues in making a decision or when they are overplayed to the point of alienation.

Front 10

Apple polishing

Back 10

Appealing to someone's pride instead of his/her reason. Its name refers to "polishing the teacher's apple." It is using flattery to convince instead of offering a credible argument.