Today in bad arguments: various vague vitiated line of reasoning

There are all sorts of arguments which, while not being logical fallacies, annoy me to no end when they keep popping up. I will go through a few of them in this post. These are the sort of things that appear when someone does not fully understand the issue or is out of better things to say. Also I wanted to use alliteration in the post title.

The famous appeal to nuance. Many claim there is some sort of nuance involved, though they cannot tell what it is. If you cannot accurately describe something, refrain from using said thing in arguments. It is fashionable to say “things are not always black and white”. True. But sometimes they are. If they are not, say exactly how. Nuance is too often something vague that sounds good to say but means nothing.

Similar to nuance is it is more complex than that, without being capable of saying ion what way it is complex. This is not an argument in itself. This can be at most a preamble to a more complete explanation. If the explanation is not forthcoming, lose the argument.

Do your own research! This is popular especially among the left, make a claim and then when asked for something to back up, they tell you to research the topic. In conversation the one making the claim should always back it up. I have neither the time nor inclination to research every claim made. If you cannot prove something, do not use it as an argument.

You should have lived there. I hear this told to people who have an opinion on a certain country without being natives or living there. This is a plain bad argument. Whatever the country, there are people who lived their entire life in that country, reasonably intelligent and educated, who have completely opposing views. This proves that living in the country does not give some special insight; otherwise most who live there would share that insight. You can live your whole life in a country and not really understand what is going on.

I feel that’s wrong. I heard that often and it pisses me off to know end. You give someone an argument, and they simply say they feel it is wrong, though they do not have a counterargument. Well I feel I should be a billionaire, but that got nothing to do with it. Feelings are not arguments.

Even more aggravating is when people clearly state they don’t have data, information, arguments but they feel they are right. If you know you don’t have arguments you might try to, and this may sound extreme, learn more about the topic and get some arguments. But for some, they see this as unnecessary. They fell they are right and that is enough.

I don’t know how to explain but. Well, if you don’t know how to explain, refrain from stating an opinion. For me it is worthless. If I can’t understand what you mean and see your arguments, we are just debating vague ideas for no reason.

What if your son/daughter did drugs/sex work/whatever is seen as an argument for making things illegal. It is a stupid argument. First of all it is little more than an appeal to emotion. There are lots of things I wouldn’t want my children to do, like cleaning a strip mall for minimum wage. So what? My subjective preference for my children has no bearing on policy.

It has never been applied. Prove to me it will work. Show me where thing works. This is an insanely stupid argument. Every new thing, every innovation, has never been applied before. That’s what makes it new. It does not mean it will not work. It is not an argument against something. The airplane was considered impossible for a long time. Well I can tell you, there are airplanes out there and they do fly.

Seriously, I will leave you with this quote:

“It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt” ― Mark Twain