Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Ok, I wanted to start off with a quick review of the podcast…This was a message that I received on Instagram from a new listener who just found the show after hearing my interview on the Just Think podcast. She says this: “I just rifled through 46 episodes since I found the podcast from the Just Think girls yesterday. Great listens! I shared it on my facebook and in a text group chat. Keep up the good work! We are listening and learning!” Thank you so much, Daryce, for sending me that message, and especially for sharing the podcast with others! I so appreciate it when you share the Filter It Through a Brain Cell podcast with friends you think might like it and it helps me spread the word about good thinking. My whole goal in this podcast is to help the next generation learn to think well, to develop discernment and to love God with their mind. Guys, we HAVE to teach these skills to our kids, and we need to learn them ourselves! We have to be able to ask the questions needed to seek the truth. I believe there is Truth, and we can know it, and learning to ask good questions to help us seek the truth is one way we can love God.
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Alright y’all, today’s fallacy is one you’ve heard of before, so I’ll keep this short & sweet. Today we’re talking about the Guilt Trip Fallacy, which is also known as an Appeal to Guilt, so it’s a type of Appeal to Emotion. So a Guilt Trip happens when someone tries to make another person feel guilty in order to get them to do, think or believe something.
A simple example of this is the parent telling their kid, “You need to eat all your broccoli because there are starving children in Africa who don’t have it as good as you do!” Ok, so you have to ask, does it even make sense to make the kid feel guilty about the starving children in Africa? And what does that have to do with them eating their broccoli?
Or, to reverse the scenario it could be the kid trying to guilt the parent by saying, “If you really loved me, you would buy me the new Air Jordan’s! Everyone at school has them and I’m going to be the only one that’s wearing old sneakers!” Ok, you see the guilt trip happening there? Saying ‘If you really loved me’ is meant to make the parents feel guilty for not making their kid feel loved by buying them the shoes.
The problem behind the guilt trip is that the emotion of guilt isn’t a replacement for a good argument and it doesn't serve as evidence for a claim. Making another person feel guilty so they’ll go along with you is emotional manipulation, plain & simple. When someone is trying to guilt you into doing something, you need to be very aware that they’re trying to manipulate you and use that guilt to get you to do something. And you need to know that you do not have to do things just b/c someone makes you feel guilty!
You guys, there is SO much guilt tripping that happens in our society, and a lot of it has to do with guilting people into making public displays of support for a cause, an idea or a particular group. I’ve seen people guilt tripped for either posting or not posting certain things on their social media, for not taking a stand on a particular social issue or for not holding certain views. Often, people try to guilt others into showing support for these issues by calling them names or demeaning them if they don’t. The people who do this are often really fickle, jumping from one cause to another and guilting all those who don’t jump onto the latest cause with them, without even waiting to learn the truth about the cause! Y’all, these critical thinking skills will help you develop discernment, giving you some armor against the societal guilt trips so that you can actually look at the issues for what they are, ask good questions and find out the truth before jumping on the latest bandwagon that society wants you to jump on! Don’t fall for the guilt trip!
Question to ask yourself: “Are they trying to guilt me into this? If so, why?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
