Spot the fallacy — name it gently
You don't need the Latin. You need the pattern.
Strawman, false binary, slippery slope, ad hominem, whataboutism. Learn to recognise the SHAPE of a bad argument in real time, and point at it without the smugness: 'I think that's two options where there are more.' The naming is for the room, not for your ego.
Instead of
That's literally a strawman fallacy, look it up.
Try
I don't think it's either all or nothing — there's a middle version of this we haven't talked about.
Try it today
Listen for one false binary today ('either X or Y') and offer the third option.
The science
Paul Graham's 'How to Disagree' (2008) ranks responses from name-calling up to refuting the central point; the informal-fallacy catalogue goes back to Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations.
Where you'd actually use it
- 🎬 Culture & Hot TakesThe greatest-of-all-time argument, and they've gone straight to the stats. Argue for a different player — or against stats as the …
- 🎬 Culture & Hot TakesA hot take has been served at a party and people are nodding. You think it's lazy. Make the case in a way that gets nods back, not…
Next lesson
- ❓ A question beats an assertionThe strongest move in most arguments is a question with a real cost behind it.
- ⚖️ Compared to what?Every argument about risk is secretly an argument about the alternative.
- 🪧 Signpost out loud'First… second…' is not for you. It's so they can follow.