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James

Is there fallacies for conspiricies/victimhood?

I have never seen these examples among the common lists of logical fallacies, and I'm wondering if they are accurately described under a different name, or if there isn't a term for the definition given:

The first I would call the "Appeal to Conspiracy", which would be used by what people would call conspiracy theorists in their line of reasoning. The fallacy is "Person A believes X, several parties disprove X using various examples, but X must be true because so much effort was put into disproving X, meaning they are trying to hide the fact that X is true". To Person A, it does not matter if the examples given actually prove X to be false, their belief is so strong that they rationalize that those countering it are part of an organized effort to hide the truth of X.

The second could be "Appeal to Victimhood", which is used by people who receive negative criticism for their claims and opinions. The fallacy is "Person B claims Group X are __________ (Racist/Demonic/Puppy Kickers/etc), members of Group X reject these claims, Person B claims that they have received harassment and threats from people of Group X, therefore Person B's claims are true because why else would Person B be persecuted?". In this case those that believe Person B's side will not acknowledge anyone from Group X putting forth evidence to disprove Person B's claims, either about the nature of Group X or if they actually harassed them, they won't check if Person B was actually harassed or if they are making things up, and anyone who is skeptical of Person B is lumped into Group X and assumed to be guilty of harassment as well, whether they belong to group X or not. The fact is that the harassment (or lack of) has no bearing on the validity of Person B's statements (unless their claim was "Group X harasses people" and proved that with substantial evidence of being harassed by members of Group X and not trolls/false flags).
asked on Tuesday, Feb 02, 2016 04:00:33 AM by James

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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The first is a logical fallacy simply known as Conspiracy Theory but also goes by the names canceling hypothesis and cover-ups.

The second is close to the appeal to pity, which is also related to the Galileo argument (i.e., "They persecuted Galileo and he was right, therefore my bat-shit crazy belief must be right too since I am being persecuted!").

I should also add that I am working on solidifying a new fallacy based on this idea of "trolling." It is fallacious to call someone who expresses a different opinion a "troll," yet that practice is alarmingly common.

answered on Wednesday, Feb 03, 2016 06:17:03 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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