4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond… Middle-ground (& other-ground) fallacy 6 Jun 202325 Mar 2024 Part 4.2 of the Critical Thinking Series (CTS): The Fallacies Middle-ground and other-ground fallacy, aka middle-ground fallacy; argument to moderation; false compromise. Definition and General Overview When people or groups…
Checkpoint quiz: introductory logic… A civil critical thinking quiz about the US firearm debate: fallacies, biases, and rhetorical tactics 2 Apr 202320 Dec 2023 Welcome! If this is your first time here, welcome aboard. I created a few other critical thinking quizzes, but none were subject-focused. This time, I developed this educational tool (with…
Additional Readings… dissent, patriotism, and skepticism versus twisted dissent, fake skepticism, and plastic patriotism 29 Jun 202213 Jun 2023 TL;DR: Dissenting against tyranny is patriotic, but this does not mean dissent for dissent’s sake is always patriotic. “Dissenting” against freedoms to impose tyranny is not congruent with patriotism or…
Additional Readings… Stasis theory and Stalin: history’s cautionary tale of contrarian misinformation leading to bad policies 19 Jan 202227 Jun 2023 Stasis theory comes to us from the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, it does not tell us how to wrap a kick-ass toga that will stay in one place. I make no…
Civics Comment guidelines 16 Aug 202128 Mar 2024 . TL;DR We promote science, evidence, critical thinking, and civil discourse, thus, common sense etiquette applies. This includes no bigotry, threats, SPAM, etc. Research shows that social media is rife…
Additional Readings… Quiz: 25 Fallacy Questions 21 Mar 202129 May 2022 Critical thinking is not merely using that lump of fat-coated neurons trapped in our skulls. Critical thinking is the systematic analysis of an idea, as well as analyzing how we…
Civics Fake News and Inakurate Info: Introduction 7 Aug 202028 Oct 2020 In this short series, I take a look at the science, history, and importance of fake news. What is it? Why is it here? What makes some more susceptible to…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond Fallacy of division 10 Jul 20202 Feb 2022 Part 4.2 of the Critical Thinking Series (CTS): The Fallacies Definition: Erroneously assuming the part/individual must have property X only because the whole has property X. This is the opposite…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond… Inflation of conflict 8 Jul 202029 Jan 2022 Part 4.2 of the Critical Thinking Series (CTS): The Fallacies Definition: This is very similar to the false balance effect. In the false balance effect, the public gets a false…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond Special pleading 8 Jul 202010 Jul 2020 Part 4.2 of the Critical Thinking Series (CTS): The Fallacies Definition: This is when someone makes up an inadequate justification for a person/situation/claim to be exempt from rules, laws, principles,…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond Categorical syllogisms & silly-jisms: rules & fallacies 22 Jun 202021 Sep 2021 Part of 4.2 of the Critical Thinking Series (CTS): The Fallacies Suppose you're a slimy alien visiting Earth for the first time, and one of the "hyoo-muhs" told you: No…
Additional Readings… 2011’s Contagion: a warning of the pseudoscience, paranoia, bad journalism, and charlatans that we see today. 25 Mar 20209 Oct 2020 I: These times are hard The suite of social reactions to COVID-19 are diverse: apathy, panic, concern, hoarding, charity, suspicion, anger, sadness, selfishness, selflessness, courage, fear, reason, paranoia, etc... And…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond Appeal to conspiracy theory pt 3: tips for navigating them and communicating 22 Mar 20203 Mar 2023 Before continuing, please read the following. Target audience: this article is not for an audience immersed in conspiracy culture. There is a spectrum of skepticism here. On one end are…
4.2 The Fallacies, caveats, examples, and how to respond Appeal to conspiracy theory pt 2: reasons and prevalence 22 Mar 20209 Oct 2020 Possible psychological reasons: Why do people believe/promote conspiracy theories? The psychological reasons are not always obvious, but it seems to be some combination of psychological factors, rather than pure misinformation.…
Flat Earthers. What we can learn from them.… Communication Tips. Part 9 of what we can learn from Flat Earthers 14 Jan 202024 Mar 2020 Back to Part 8 To attenuate fallacies, minimize bias, and promote logic, scientific thought, and scientific literacy requires effective communication. And communication is difficult, but here are some tips. Understand…
Flat Earthers. What we can learn from them.… Promoting Science and Critical Thinking. Part 8 of What we can learn from Flat Earthers 11 Jan 20209 Apr 2021 Part 7 Flat Earthers make us inquire about the prevalence of pseudoscience beliefs. And after seeing how common false beliefs are, we are left to wonder: how do we advocate…
Additional Readings… How are pseudoscientific beliefs similar? (Part 7 of What we can learn from Flat Earthers) 11 Jan 202020 Jan 2022 Back to Part 6 In the last section, we saw how common just some of these pseudoscientific beliefs are. I didn’t have the time to fully show how each is…
Additional Readings… How common are pseudoscientific beliefs? (Part 6 of What we can learn from Flat Earthers) 9 Jan 202015 Sep 2020 Back to Part 5 The Flat Earthers' WTF-factor motivates us to get a checkup. Just how prevalent are pseudoscientific beliefs? This one is a bit longer than the other posts…
Additional Readings… Pseudoscience and scientific literacy (Part 5 of what we can learn from flat earthers) 9 Jan 202023 Jul 2020 Back to Part 4 Flat Earthers bring pseudoscience to the limelight. This attention helps us confront other questions: How common are pseudoscientific beliefs? How scientifically literate are we? And How…
Additional Readings… We are hard-wired for misperception (Part 3 of what we can learn from flat earthers) 9 Jan 202024 Mar 2020 Back to Part 2 Flat Earthers have to reconcile the evidence that was well-understood since ancient times (see the previous post) as well as the plethora of evidence accumulated ever…