"How would you like it if X..."
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Original Question
This is a ubiquitous counterargument in every high school classroom debate, regardless of the topic. The method is well-known, too: person A makes a statement of action, and person B refutes it by asking how person A would like it if the same action were applied to them. Gambling on person A not liking it (or at least, not knowing how to respond), they then assert that they must be right and person A wrong.
Appeal to Emotion is my guess; any other takers?
(Note: this can have valid exceptions when someone has committed wrongdoing, but lacks the empathy to see where they've gone wrong).
Comments on Question
Answers
4This sounds like s form of ad hominem as the argument is changed to something regarding the interlocutor rather than the merits of the original argument.
If I understand correctly, the claim is that if you wouldn't benefit from a policy, then the policy shouldn't be implemented. Clearly, this is poor reasoning. Policy implementation should consider as many factors as possible, and how people like them is only one factor. Besides a generic Non Sequitur , it also sounds like an Appeal to Emotion where the emotion can be any emotion invoked by imagining how the policy would affect the person.
I would suggest this is a twisted form of the tu quoque fallacy. Tu quoque is a "you too" argument - "well, you did the same thing that you are complaining about last year, so your argument against is therefore invalid". So if the original argument is made about some proposed policy, such as the example by Rationalissimo, if the person making the argument responds to the questioner with "Well, I wouldn't like that", then the responder can make the argument that the policy is bad because it is hypocritical - "the policy is good if applied to them, but not if applied to me".
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Can you provide an example?