You can become better at debate if you recognize the types of fallacious arguments. Let’s go over two of these fallacies, two wrongs don’t make a right and the red herring.
Two wrongs don’t make a right
- The basic structure of this type of argument; Someone else did X (If someone else does X it’s ok for me to do X), therefore X is right
Examples of two wrongs don’t make a right
- Mom and dad smoke, therefore, they should let me smoke
- A serial robber gets robbed himself but he had it coming
- A drug dealer got killed, he deserved it for ruining so many lives
- You cheated on me, therefore, it’s ok for me to cheat
- A stripper was groped – it’s just hazards of the job
Be consistent
- Karma does not justify crimes that happen to bad people
Red herring
- Distracting one’s attention from one topic to another. Shifting the argument
Examples of a red herring
- If you’re ok with legalizing abortion then you should be ok with legalizing murder
- Your problems are insignificant, there are starving children in Africa
Smokescreens a type of red herring
- Lots of verbiages
- Bunch of considerations threw in an argument that the opponent can’t generally relate to the subject
- Some of the points might be relevant but the opposing side isn’t given the chance to sift through them