Jun 13, 2013
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Arguments From My Opponent Believes Something

6 min • 806 words • 43 comments
https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/13/arguments-from-my-opponent-believes-something/
Scott Alexander outlines and criticizes ten fallacious argument styles that misrepresent an opponent's beliefs, demonstrating how they can be used to unfairly attack any position. Longer summary
Scott Alexander critiques a series of argument styles that misrepresent an opponent's position by exaggerating or distorting their belief. He presents ten variations of this fallacious reasoning, each escalating the misrepresentation in a different way. These range from likening a belief to religious faith, to suggesting that holding a belief implies extreme fanaticism or hatred of opponents. The post concludes with a densely packed example combining all ten argument styles, using the mundane topic of wearing coats in cold weather to demonstrate how absurd these arguments can become when applied to any belief. Scott clarifies that while some of these issues can be real problems, these argument styles are 'fully general' and can be used to attack any position unfairly. Shorter summary
Recurring tags: debate (78), philosophy (47), cognitive bias (32), critical thinking (23), logical fallacies (8), argumentation (6), rhetoric (5)

1. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Believing It On Faith, Which Is Kinda Like Them Being A Religion:
“The high priests of the economic orthodoxy take it on faith that anyone who doubts the market is a heretic who must be punished.”

2. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Means They Believe It Is The Answer To One Question, Which Is Kinda Like Believing It Is The Answer To All Questions, But It Isn’t: “Statists believe government can solve all our problems. They need to understand the world doesn’t work that way.”

3. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Believing It Really Strongly, Which Is Kinda Like Being A Fanatic: “Environmentalist extremists are fanatically obsessed over saving the planet, refusing to even consider any contradictory ideas.”

4. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Believing It Blindly With 100% Certainty:
“Some people blindly trust science to always be correct about everything, but we need to remember that even scientists can make mistakes.”

5. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Having An Ideology, Which Means They Are Ideologues: “Ideologies are false idols, attempts to replace thought with mindless obedience. And one such ideology is the dogma of feminism. Therefore, we need to start being much more critical about feminism.”

6. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Hating The People Who Don’t Believe In It, And Hatred Is Wrong: “People need to get over their frothing hatred for euthanasia.”

7. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Is Kinda Like Saying That That One Belief Should Be The Sole Determinant Of Our Entire Aesthetic Sensibility: “Sure, we could legalize contraception. But do we really want to enshrine the value that human fertility is evil, and that new human life is a ‘failure’ to be avoided?”

8. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Might Suggest A Course Of Action, But A Suggestion Is Kinda Like An Obligation, And She Has No Right To Order Me Around: “Some people want to liberalize immigration laws, but our country is under no obligation to let in any foreigner who asks.”

9. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Might Suggest A Course Of Action, Which Could In Theory Be Implemented Through Violence, And Violence Is Wrong: “Transhumanists think AI may be dangerous, but this could encourage people to kill AI researchers, so holding this belief is irresponsible.” Or, “Environmentalist condemnations of the oil industry encourage eco-terrorist attacks on oil workers.”

10. Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, Which Might Suggest A Course Of Action, And Suggestions Could In Theory Stigmatize People Who Don’t Do Them: “People say smoking is dangerous and unhealthy, but this just serves to stigmatize smokers and make them feel unwelcome in society.”

For best effect, combine all ten as densely as possible:

It is an unchallengeable orthodoxy that you should wear a coat if it is cold out. Day after day we hear shrill warnings from the high priests of this new religion practically seething with hatred for anyone who might possibly dare to go out without a winter coat on. But these ideologues don’t realize that just wearing more jackets can’t solve all of our society’s problems. Here’s a reality check – no one is under any obligation to put on any clothing they don’t want to, and North Face and REI are not entitled to your hard-earned money. All that these increasingly strident claims about jackets do is shame underprivileged people who can’t afford jackets, suggesting them as legitimate targets for violence. In conclusion, do we really want to say that people should be judged by the clothes they wear? Or can we accept the unjacketed human body to be potentially just as beautiful as someone bundled beneath ten layers of coats?

EDIT: I’m not claiming these aren’t real problems, I’m claiming they’re things that they are fully general arguments – you can accuse anyone of them and no one can ever prove you’re wrong. For example, some things really are religions (Christianity, for example), but you can accuse any position of being “a religion” merely by virtue of it being a belief that people hold. Therefore, we should be extremely skeptical of arguments where “X is a religion” is doing the work.

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