The fallacy in logic with Covid messaging
The word fallacy means a misconception resulting from flawed reasoning, a trick or illusion in thought that succeeds in obfuscating (confusing) truth.
There are many working parts to the COVID logical fallacy machine starting top down with:
1. Appeal to authority- for instance , Government is as if “God,” where Lord Fauci is the divine being administering our Savior the vaccine. Insisting that a claim is true simply because a valid authority or expert on the issue said it was true without any other supporting evidence (i.e. one-way arrows down a grocery store aisle) is this trick.
2. The logical fallacy of ad hominem (Latin for “argument against the person”) works by attacking an opponent's character or motives rather than answering the argument or claim. appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason. Ad hominem typically refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself, especially by criticizing them in an unfair and dishonest way, when they are not present (perhaps by labeling them a part of some group or opposed to some group). This strategy avoids genuine debate by creating a diversion to some irrelevant but often highly charged issue.
3. The following logical fallacies assist in coordinating the efforts to confuse and bewilder the legitimate issues raised:
Anecdotal examples use isolated examples as if this is the case across the board. Rather than using hard facts and data, people using the anecdotal evidence fallacy base their arguments on their own experiences. These kinds of arguments focus on emotions over logic. They do not recognize that one person's experience may not provide sufficient evidence to make a generalized claim. While something may be true to this one person, it may not apply to the general population.
Ad nauseam repetition of authority figures saying the shots are "safe and effective". This is the common phrase used to otherwise promote, publicize and “beat the drum”, 24/7 for vaccines in general.
The bandwagon influence tells us everyone is doing it, so get on board.
Ridicule and mockery hurt feelings and deflect truth.
Shifting the burden of proof from the person making the claim to the person questioning the information given is another.
Finally, the strawman logical fallacy gets its name because it is an argument that is thin and has no substance. It works by pretending to attack an opponent's argument, but the attacker is really rephrasing the argument/point into a distorted version of the person's stance. This distorted version is then attacked, which may not even be something the speaker supports.
These logical fallacy tactics create a distortion and the way to break the spell is to speak clear definitive language, spot the distortion in what is spoken, and call attention to it. This list is not all inclusive, there are more subtle ways to invoke logical fallacies to confuse the truth.
Most importantly, when we are aware of these logical fallacies at work, we can break the spell.
Lois Lane