The So’s- Your- Old- Man Fallacy – William M. Briggs. I’m on the road for the next several days and won’t always have access to the Internet. So I’m reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume early next week. This post originally appeared on 4 June 2. Melvin Smedgrass, you stand accused of robbing the Fifth- Third Bank of Waters, Michigan, on November the third, last of $8. So's your old man Inf. The same to you!; Drop dead! A catch phrase indicating basic disagreement or hostility.) Bill: You're acting like an idiot. So's your old man definition at Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary with pronunciation, synonyms and translation. How do you plead?”“Your honor, just last week in Troy a man robbed a bank and got away with more than $1. Is that so? Bailiff, release the prisoner.”If you find Smedgrass’s argument convincing, you’re qualified to comment on Internet blogs, or for a position on the staff of the editorial division of any major newspaper.
For as soon as somebody makes the claim “Mr Obama did X”, the paper would respond, “Mr Bush did Y”, with the implication that the proposition “Mr Obama did X” is false or unworthy of discussion. When, in fact and is obvious and is logical, whether the proposition “Mr Bush did Y” is true, false, or somewhere in between has no bearing whatsoever on whether the proposition “Mr Obama did X” is true. The So’s- Your- Old- Man fallacy belongs on the playground, where it originated. I say, “Frequentism is false because X”. Directly somebody comments, “I don’t like Bayesian priors” and considers she has given a knockdown rebuttal. But in no way is this frequentism’s salvation if “because X” is valid. Last week on Twitter I linked to an excellent, must- read article by the unfortunately “soul- patched” Dominic Selwood entitled, “How a Protestant spin machine hid the truth about the English Reformation.” Gist: Henry VIII’s desire for a divorce and a son coupled with Thomas Cromwell’s greed and his lust of the wealth of Catholic monasteries led the elite in England to pillage and purge and prevaricate until Catholics became as lepers. My tweet prompted from a follower this in response: “Consider that the scientific revolution was very much build . Raw animal instinct is often the reason for the appearance of the So’s- Your- Old- Man. Your opponent has heard your claim, fears its truth, dreads the consequences of that truth, and lashes out with the first thing that comes to mind, usually something chosen to wound. We’ve all (me too) given in to the temptation. Even Bertie Wooster recorded an instance where he employed the fallacy: “. He admitted, “And I meant it to sting.” As a debating tactic, the SYOM fallacy is hard to beat. The late Christopher Hitchens swore by it and was its master. I can’t recall an instance where he used it and his opponent wasn’t immediately distracted. As said above, the SYOM thrives like a cultivated weed on blogs, on television talk shows, and press conferences. If somebody says “because X”, and you think it invalid, your clear intellectual duty is to search out the invalidity without offering distractions. If you cannot discover a retort, and indeed agree the premises of “because X” are true, the argument itself valid and its conclusion sound, your sole duty is to accept the argument, even if you fear the sequelae. If you are on the giving end and your opponent has opted for the SYOM, you may highlight it but that’s all. Then reissue “because X.” Be tenacious. Arguments are not feelings, though you must retain yours. Say, “You have forgotten to answer why not X. Here is why X in different words.” Ignore everything which is not a direct reply. Update I originally had “So’s- Your- Brother” instead of “So’s- Your- Old- Man”, but Scotian below has convinced me this new version is better, more euphonious, and better aligned with history. So's Your Old Man (1. Edit. Poor glazier Sam Bisbee has invented break- proof glass. He intends to show it off to a convention of automobile men. Due to a mixup his car is switched with another and his demonstration toss of a brick simply breaks the car's windshield. On the way home he thinks a woman is trying to commit suicide and so prevents her. The woman is really Princess Lescaboura, who arrives in Bisbee's home town looking for him.
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