Friday, March 10, 2017

Fun new game, to educate and annoy :)

#YourLogicalFallacyIs the most fun I've had since I started twitter. Inspired by the Michelle Wolf of The Daily Show, and www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html, I found the slightly more interactive YourLogicalFallacy.com and invented a new way to waste time: trying to inform people about the types of argument they shouldn't use, and certainly shouldn't listen to. It's too easy to fall for common misdirects.

Great for English teachers, as well as social studies or politics classes, because when it comes to media manipulation, the next generation will need to be more awake than ever. You can try and find as many different types of misleading statements as you can on social media, and even tally them. Or, if you're like me, you can make sure everyone knows of the misstep, so that others won't fall into these surprisingly common traps. Maybe try politely at first, because most of these people are victims, but some are just trolls. When the abuse has nothing to back it and exists solely to discredit a person's agency, disengage with "That's ad hominem, but thanks for playing #YourLogicalFallacyIs"

Logical fallacies come in many different and exciting forms, running all the way from appeals to authority to another Kellyanne Conway favourite- tu quoque (you too), but the one whose description is unmissable is "Begging the Question," mostly because we all know of a Zorbo the Great.

So there you are, congratulations, and thanks for playing #YourLogicalFallacy. I hope you have fun too. And maybe, just maybe, the conversation will turn to facts.




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