Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
I wanted to start off today by sharing a message that one of my teen listeners sent to me recently, this one is from Lily: “Dear Mrs. Gibbens, I recently read the book “Animal Farm” for the first time, and I was shocked at how many fallacies, propaganda techniques, and manipulation tactics that I noticed, while at the same time I was reminded of corrupt governments of today. I think what you’re doing is so important, and if any of the animals in that book had listened to your podcast the story might have had a better outcome. Thank you for helping us know better how to use our own minds. Sincerely, Lily”
Ok, first of all, Lily - you’ve totally made my day…I truly love to hear from my listeners! And you are the perfect example of why I’m doing this podcast. My whole goal & prayer is that you’ll be able to pick out and recognize the fallacies & manipulative tactics that are being used everywhere, it seems like. And, I love it that you’re reading Animal Farm! I’m actually getting ready to read it again next week and it’ll be fun to read it this time with an eye toward finding the fallacies that some of the characters use in the book to try to manipulate & control others. I’m actually currently re-reading the book Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and it’s so interesting to see how many fallacies Screwtape uses in his letters to Wormwood to use on his “patient” to trick him & lie to him! It’s fascinating, and what’s crazy is how many people fall for these tactics! But not you…that’s why you’re listening to this podcast…so you can recognize the tactics and not fall for them. I want you to have good discernment when it comes to the messages you’re hearing and be able to think through things clearly & with a clear mind. So once again, thanks for being here.
Ok, so the new fallacy we’re talking about today is the Appeal to Silence. An Appeal to Silence happens when someone uses silence or the lack of a response as evidence for a claim. This fallacy is also sometimes called the Argument from Silence (or Argumentum ex Silentio in Latin).
Here’s a rather silly example of this fallacy that’ll help you understand it. I say to my dog, Ted, that the sky isn’t blue, it’s actually dark green and he doesn’t say anything, and since he didn’t refute my claim, it must be true! Ok, so you can see how silly that is, but it shows the problem with the fallacy. Just because someone doesn’t mention something doesn’t mean they don’t know about it, or just because someone doesn’t refute a claim doesn’t make the claim true!
Another interesting instance of people committing the Appeal to Silence fallacy happened during the summer of 2020 here in the US after George Floyd died. There were a lot of people posting black squares on their social media in support of him & the black community in general. But what some people did was call out & verbally attack people or companies who didn’t put a black square on their social media, calling them racist for not doing so. Well, we have to ask if that’s really true. Their ‘silence’ was in not putting up a black square, but does that really mean they’re racist or don’t care about the black community? No, there is no way of knowing what they actually think based off of something they *didn’t* do. For that, you’d have to have a conversation with them and ask them. That’s the problem with assumptions and getting caught up in cultural assumptions…they could be right, but they could also be totally wrong. You don’t know unless you ask.
The problem behind the Argument from Silence is that just because someone doesn’t refute a claim doesn’t make the claim true. Silence doesn’t equal agreement. The only thing we can interpret silence as is silence! Anything else is an assumption. Because Ted didn’t disagree that the sky is dark green doesn’t mean he agrees with me or that I’m right…that’s an assumption I made to try to tell myself that my claim is true. And people so often just want to be right that they’ll interpret other people’s silence to mean something they WANT it to mean rather than seeking clarification as to what the person thinks. The bottom line is that we still have to ask the question of whether the claim is actually true, rather than just assuming it’s true or that someone agrees with us just because they don’t say anything.
Here's another, more sober, example of the Argument from Silence that I’ve heard repeatedly recently. There have been people…even some people who call themselves Christians!...who have argued that since Jesus never expressly forbid or condemned homosexuality, then it must be ok. Or, I’ve heard people say that Jesus never said the word ‘abortion’ so He clearly doesn’t have a problem with it and it’s ok. For real…I’ve heard these arguments! This is clearly an Appeal to Silence…just because Jesus didn’t say those exact words doesn’t mean it’s therefore ok! When it comes to the Bible, we have to look at all of Scripture and see the entirety of what God has to say about a topic and these issues are very clearly addressed in other places in the Bible and Jesus very clearly did affirm the truth & validity of Scripture!
Question to ask yourself: “Does the fact that they didn’t say anything really mean the claim is true?” *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?”
