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The Quiet Rise of Logical Fallacies
Being right isn’t always the goal. Understanding the truth is.
Logical fallacies are sneaky little tricks. They hide in plain sight, disguised as convincing arguments. They’re tools of persuasion, manipulation, and control. Either way, they distort the truth. Once you start looking for fallacies, you’ll see them everywhere — in ads, news reports, and conversations. It’s like learning a new language.
Suddenly, you understand the hidden messages.
It’s annoying at first, but then you can’t stop noticing it. But just because someone uses a fallacy doesn’t mean they’re evil or stupid. Maybe they’re just careless. Or maybe they’re trying to manipulate you. Either way, if a story is far from the actual truth, it’s wrong. “Almost all those caught making a logical fallacy interpret it as a “disagreement,” author Nassim Taleb said.
Fallacies exploit vulnerabilities and ego (our fear of being wrong). They prey on our desire to belong, to be right, and to feel safe. Logical fallacies in news sources exploit our biases, fears, and hopes. They’re catchy and memorable. They distract us from the truth, leading us down misleading paths. Uncertainty is uncomfortable. Fallacies offer simple, black-and-white answers. Facts and evidence are often dull and complex.
We’re wired for shortcuts. Our brains love easy answers.
Fallacies offer those. Logical fallacies manipulate our minds through techniques like anchoring, framing, and scarcity. These tactics create illusions of control and urgency, driving our decisions. Social media rewards emotional responses. Outrage, anger, fear — these drive engagement. Fallacies play into these emotions perfectly. The truth gets lost in the noise.
Outrage gets likes and shares. Fear drives clicks.
Politicians use them to win votes. Friends use them in arguments. You see them everywhere: hasty generalisations, false dilemmas, slippery slopes, and ad hominem attacks. These manipulate emotions, not logic. “The simple repetition of a falsehood, even by a questionable source, can lead people to actually believe the lie,” according to Norbert Schwarz, Eryn Newman, and William Leach, experts in cognitive psychology.
