But he told me…

I originally wanted to write a rant explaining fallacies. For those of you who don’t know, a fallacy is an invalid argument that uses unassociated emotions or biases, that masquerades as a legitimate argument.

The following is a fairly obvious example:

Adam: Smoking is bad, it causes lung cancer.

Bill: Ya, as if I’ll listen to you, I saw you smoke just yesterday.

This argument is fallacious because whether or not Adam smokes, has no bearing on whether or not smoking is bad.

However fallacies are fairly well documented online so I won’t bother with my amateur explanations Instead I’ll send you here

My reason for wanting to talk about fallacies goes way back. I was first exposed to fallacies upon trying to locate the original writer for an old webcomic I used to read. His site had a list of common fallacies, and these mistakes in logic certainly piqued my interest if nothing else.

Then earlier this year I found out that there was a practical counterpart to a course I was taking at the time, Phil 120 – Symbolic Logic, called Phil 125 – Practical Logic. The calendar promised the informal (only in the most technical sense of the word) study of logic, including arguments and fallacies. While not immediately hooked, my professor at the time convinced me of its merit, and lo and behold I was enrolled this term.

However, the tipping point for this minor detail in my life to become a full post came during the Google Buzz rollout disaster. With Google Buzz came a buttload of backlash. Privacy settings went went haywire and all of a sudden the internet was up in arms.

One particular incident made an impression. A blogger cried out that the Google Buzz escapade had compromised her security, declaring her Google Account activities (Picasa, Reader) to her other contacts, among which were radical antifeminist, endangering her life. This caught the attention of a tech blog I follow, and was reported, displaying the results of the privacy flaws Google Buzz unleashed. However, instead of actively trying to come up with solutions for this problem, or thinking lucidly about the reality of what was happening, the community disintegrated into name calling and Straw man fallacies.

The community I held dear disintegrated into a pack of mongrels. I had hoped for respectful and thoughtful conversation from this community, but they were far too distracted, and these simple illusions of arguments broke down what was meant to be a forum of intellectual progress.

That is why I link the other site with the list of fallacies. Because fallacies prevent lucid thought, prevent the rolling progress of thought.

And to see perfectly intelligent people make these mistakes is just tragic.

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