Jordan Trujillo

The Nine Logical Fallacies

On the internet you can find the use and often overuse of all nine Logical Fallacies in
internet drama. They are often used in flame wars, rants, commentaries and the
like. The following are examples of each one being used in some form of drama on
the internet. Also these fallacies are often used with each other.

1. Emotionally loaded terms. These are used constantly when someone is trying
to cover up the fact that they are in the wrong or gain undeserved sympathy.
Some I knew in response to some stolen art wrote a sob story and use such
terms as; from the bottom of my heart and my loves not to mention It
pains me very being as a way of trying to garner sympathy or to persuade
everyone into thinking that the user is a victim. This is often known as
BAWWWWing and some people will invoke a meme called Call Whine-One-
One for a WAAAAAMBULANCE.

2. Ad Hominem Arguments. These are probably more common than emotionally

loaded terms on the internet. Often times when an argument on the internet
takes place, soon someone is going to resort to personal attacks because he
or she cannot come up with a good response. This is when Flame Wars erupt.
So often times instead of coming up with a counter argument they will insult
and attack the other person like a commentator on a blog about copyright
abuse called Torrent Freak. He did not agree with the bloggers opinions but
he just flamed the blogger instead of arguing.

3. Faulty Cause and Effect. This is used a lot on the internet too. Usually by
users trying to blame another person for their actions or to draw attention
away from the real issue. A notorious YouTube user known as VenonfangX
once filed several false DMCA Takedown Notices against another user,
dprjones who happened to be a lawyer. In an attempt to divert attention
away from the fact that he committed perjury, he use a faulty cause and
effect argument by stating that dprjoness videos were the cause of all the
hatred he was receiving when there was no evidence that this was true.

4. Either/Or reasoning. When it comes to Internet drama Either/Or reasoning is

used in an attempt to derail an argument by offering two extremes. One
Great example of this is in many internet flame wars, users will something
along the lines of, What? You dont agree with my opinions? You have no life
and you live in the basement all day! They love using the You either agree
with me or you are against me and thus have no life. argument. Or that they
say, you are either with this fan base or this other fan base as well.

5. Hasty Generalization. This is another favorite used in internet drama. Users

love making assumptions on groups of people when one of them does
 something that they dont like. Two of the best examples of this are in the
Furry and Anime Fandoms. There are some people in these fandoms that
have shall we say, unusual fetishes. Because of this, people are quick to label
these fandoms as being nothing but perverts who do certain offensive things
when this not true. Only a few people in these fandoms are like that. This is
also true when people invoke racial stereotypes all the time. Like such as; All
Muslims are terrorists. or All black people are in gangs and commit crimes
etc.

6. False Analogies. One of the most commonly used false analogies used in
internet drama is so commonly found that an internet meme has been
created for it. This meme is known as Godwins Law. Godwins Law states:
The longer a discussion becomes, the chances of someone referencing Hitler
or Nazis increases by one. Practically every flame war or drama fest I have
been involved with online has someone comparing the holocaust to the
argument. Such as someone comparing the fact that certain people being
targeted on World of Warcraft, or why something on the internet is not
perfect, or when someones opinion offends another, they will say something
along the lines of Such and such is just so despicable! Even worst then the
Nazis or the holocaust!

7. Begging the question. Begging the question is used when someone is

arrogant on proving his opinion is correct to the point of simply trying to
answer a question with an often more confrontational question. A good
example of this I was again on Torrent Freak when someone who was
commenting on a blog post in which instead of actually coming up with a
decent argument, he kept asking how content creators should be paid if file
sharing is becoming more of the norm.

8. Non Sequitur. People on the internet will invoke non sequitur arguments when
talking about almost anything on the internet. A few examples are when
people talk about politics and religion. Often times this is used in conjunction
with one or more of the other fallacies. Such as; Obama has a Arabic middle
name and therefore he has no business running this country!

9. Oversimplification. This is used a lot when people are talking about current
world issues such as when I heard on the internet; If the CIA is doing things
that are illegal, disband the CIA! or, If we used a fraction of the money we
spend on the military we could solve world hunger! etc.