Faucists: Argument from authority...
Me: Can you stop being an authoritarian?
The first fallacy is pretty obvious. They appeal to authority and assume that everyone trusts or should trust in those authorities. They often refer to these authorities as "experts" or "scientists" or sometimes even "science". You'd think "science" is a person if you didn't know any better 🤦♂️ But this is a logical fallacy known as appeal to authority. In an argument, you cannot demand trust in an authority. That's what authoritarians do. It's not what logical people do. The moment you do that, you lose the argument.
Faucists: But these people are experts?
Me: That's special pleading and not all "experts" agree
Once you call them out on the argument of authority fallacy and ask them to stop being an authoritarian, they'll move to special pleading by arguing that these people are "special" because they know so much more than us with all their Uni degrees and research. But the truth is they're not special. They're human and we know that humans are fallible. Besides, not all "experts" or "scientists" agree on most topics esp. this one. It's arguably not only special pleading but still an appeal to authority, demanding trust in the "experts" and "scientists" that happen to agree with you. How CONvenient 🙄
Faucists: But we have a consensus and most experts agree?
Me: That's called argument from popularity
Once you call them out on special pleading and point out that not all "experts" are on the same page they're demanding the whole society to follow, they'll move on to argument from popularity by stating that there's a consensus among the "experts" and that most of them agree. This is a logcal fallacy too known as argument from popularity. Just because an opinion is popular among a group of people or "experts", it doesn't mean it's true. In fact, history shows us that the majority or popular opinion has often been wrong.
Faucists: But this is the best solution we currently have?
Me: That's argument from ignorance and authority again
Once they realize they can't really prove anything, they'll concede to something like yeah but this is the best solution we have right now? This is of course an argument from ignorance but also from authority again because again you cannot demand trust in the authorities you trust and neither can you expect someone to accept something as true just because it is currently the best solution since future information may flip everything upside down and prove it to have been the worst solution. Now of course the solution they're shilling is far from the best solution we know of but it clearly seems to be the case in their closed mind, controlled by the authorities they trust, or perhaps I should say the gods they worship 🤷♂️
