Comment on Carl Sagan's 9 timeless lessons for detecting baloney
lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 week agoAh, the “fallacy fallacy”? Got a nice example of that:
- Alice: "Experts say junk food harms your health. Experts can’t be wrong, so stop eating junk food."
- Bob: “This is appeal to authority! It’s fine to eat only junk food.”
On “ackshyually”. I was trying to be succinct so I got sloppy, and the Wiki does have a good explanation of the fallacy, but basically: if you see an “ackshyually” in social media, it’s usually used for the sake of a red herring.
That’s because the ackshually isn’t just pedantic and irritating, it’s also distracting. It sounds like someone is contradicting you, without addressing the core argument, you know?