Re:What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at t...
by pjlegato on Thursday February 16, 2017 @05:43PM
(#13664289)
> the common reply I see to "this country does bad stuff" reduces to "well this country does bad stuff too!"
It's not pedantic if you care about being rational. This act is a common logical fallacy called the "tu quoque fallacy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
Why is this a fallacy?
Suppose country A is accused of doing something bad. It's logically irrelevant to that question whether some other country B also has done something bad.
To see it more clearly, take the same fallacy on an individual level. Person A is accused of murdering someone. Is it a valid defense to say "Well, my neighbor Person B also murdered someone, therefore it's OK that I did"? No, of course not. It's totally irrelevant whether someone else -- even the accuser -- has also murdered someone.
Yet making this fallacious counter-accusation is often effective in terms of emotional (i.e. irrational) manipulation of the audience, particularly when they are predisposed against B in some way.
It's not pedantic if you care about being rational. This act is a common logical fallacy called the "tu quoque fallacy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
Why is this a fallacy?
Suppose country A is accused of doing something bad. It's logically irrelevant to that question whether some other country B also has done something bad.
To see it more clearly, take the same fallacy on an individual level. Person A is accused of murdering someone. Is it a valid defense to say "Well, my neighbor Person B also murdered someone, therefore it's OK that I did"? No, of course not. It's totally irrelevant whether someone else -- even the accuser -- has also murdered someone.
Yet making this fallacious counter-accusation is often effective in terms of emotional (i.e. irrational) manipulation of the audience, particularly when they are predisposed against B in some way.