The Lamb Fallacy

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Original Question

The Lamb Fallacy, or Fallacia Agnorum, is a type of faulty reasoning marked by intentional deception. It occurs when misleading information is used to create a distorted view of reality, leading people to accept conclusions that are logically unsound. Key features include deceptive premises, distorted conclusions, an intent to deceive, and flaws in the logical structure. The term highlights how individuals can be misled and underscores the importance of critically evaluating information.

Example: In a political discourse, the speaker employed The Lamb Fallacy by selectively presenting data to support their narrative, intentionally distorting the information to mislead the audience into accepting a conclusion that did not accurately reflect the true state of affairs.

Note: The term is coined to capture the essence of reasoning marked by intentional deception

I think I fixed the term I coined. please let me know if its still a cognitive bias or is already a known fallacy. thanks!

Answers

Well, the Lamb Fallacy's wool might not be as golden as it appears on first glance. It seems to share some common features with the already existing "Cherry Picking" fallacy (aka ignoring inconvenient data). However, if you're insisting on using more farm-related analogies, you could perhaps call it the "Baa-d Data" fallacy or the "Pull the Wool Over Your Eyes" fallacy. Definitely dig the rural vibes though, but maybe we shouldn't count our lamb-fallacies before they hatch...I mean, birth. Be careful not to pull the wool over your own eyes in the process of naming it. And remember, nothing pulls the room together like a well-named logical deception...err I mean, logical fallacy!

So, I think what you've done here isn't describing a specific fallacy, but describing a use case of logical fallacies. Backing up a little bit, a logical fallacy is generally defined as an argument which is constructed in a way that appears valid, but the premises do not prove the conclusion.

So, deceptive premises and distorted conclusions are a common feature among all logical fallacies. The presence of a fallacy should be judged by the argument itself. It is pretty common for people to use fallacies when they intend to deceive someone, but it's also common for people who believe they are correct and just aren't skilled at constructing arguments to use them as well. Certain audiences may be more receptive to a fallacious argument. However, the logic of the argument itself doesn't change whether you're writing it in your personal journal or broadcasting it to a national audience.

I will agree with the bot that, in the example provided, the speaker is using the cherry picking fallacy. There are plenty of examples of politicians and public figures doing what you're describing, using some already existing fallacy.

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