Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
I thought I’d start off by sharing a short message I received by a new listener, Linda. She said, “I love your podcast! I am sharing it with my friends and my daughters. SO needed and important, especially these days!” Yes, Linda! I could not agree more! We have got to equip ourselves and our kids with the skills to be able to think well about the things we’re seeing & hearing on a regular basis. What made this message super cool is that Linda and I went to college together and it made my day to hear this from her!
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Ok, let’s dive into today’s fallacy, The Kafka Trap. The KafkaTrap happens when someone is accused of something, and when they deny it, but their denial is considered proof that the thing they’re accused of is true! If that sounds a little confusing, let me give you an example that’ll make it super clear:
Trevor is in a candy shop and the owner starts yelling at him, accusing him of stealing a piece of candy. He didn’t steal anything, so of course, he denies it. The shop owner says, “Ha, that’s proof you stole it…guilty people always deny it when they get caught.”
Ok, so that’s the Kafka Trap. It comes from a book titled The Trial, written in 1915 by someone named Franz Kafka. In this book, the main character is arrested and charged with some serious crimes, but he’s never told what those crimes are. They never explain the charges to him, instead, his refusal to acknowledge his guilt is what makes him guilty. The only way to make it stop is to admit that he is guilty. Sounds maddening, doesn’t it! The KafkaTrap is a linguistic trick that people use to deceive you and to avoid actually making a good case or defending their argument with real evidence.
It’s a version of circular reasoning because no matter what you do, you’re trapped. Take our example of Trevor, for instance. If he says, “Yes, I stole a piece of candy.” he’s called a thief. If he says, “I didn’t steal any candy” he’s still called a thief. For someone committing the KafkaTrap, you’re guilty of whatever they’re accusing you of either way and the more you protest, the more they accuse. You can’t win with someone committing the KafkaTrap…the only thing you can do is to recognize it and point out the fact that they’re committing it and hope they realize the bad thinking behind it. If they don’t, you probably just need to end the conversation or walk away, because it’s truly an argument you can’t win. And honestly, your chances of winning any argument with a person who doesn’t think well and isn’t willing to try to think well are slim to none. Now, I’ll say this, if you’re feeling sassy that particular day, you could try turning it around on them and see if they get it!
A lot of times, someone committing the KafkaTrap will say things like, “All you do is deny” or “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, or they’ll get fancy and quote Shakespeare saying, “Methinks thou dost protest too much”. And all those things are just meant to make it seem like your denial is proof of guilt. You’re considered guilty until proven innocent and there’s nothing you can say that will prove you innocent. Lovely, huh?
There are some hot topics in our culture right now where the KafkaTrap is being used to
maintain a certain narrative. One of those is around racism. There are some who say that if you have white skin, you’re racist. And if you deny it, that just proves even more that you’re a racist. Seriously, there have been books written around this idea, and I’m going to be sharing some articles that address this very thing with the members in my Crazy Thinkers ‘Thinkership’ next month.
If you’re just now hearing about Crazy Thinkers, it’s a subscription you can sign up for where every month I’ll send you several different memes or articles or headlines or ads and I’ll also give you a list of questions so that you or you & your kids can practice the skills of good thinking…you can practice recognizing the fallacies you’re learning here on the podcast! It’s super helpful to be able to have a curated resource to be able to practice with real-life stuff where I give you the answers and extra questions so you can have a cool conversation about what you’re seeing! Not only that, but I really want to help you become Crazy GOOD Thinkers so I’m also including a private podcast called “How To Think About…” where I’ll be inviting people to teach us how to think about different topics. For instance, I’ve got a friend coming in next month who is an Apologist and he’ll be teaching us how to think about bad arguments about our faith…because let’s be real…you can’t refute an argument if you don’t know how to think about it first! I’ve already got several quotes & memes that I’ll be showing him and he’ll talk us through how he thinks about them to be able to recognize the errors in them. It’s going to be super interesting. I’ll be bringing on people who will teach us HOW TO THINK about all kinds of different topics and I’m super excited about it! Y’all, we HAVE to learn to think well about life and culture and people and truth and media. The reality is, we are all prone to making thinking errors and we owe it to ourselves and the people around us to learn to think well. So that’s what we do in Crazy Thinkers. The doors are opening today, so if you’d like to join, just go to filteritthroughabraincell.com/crazy to get all the details and sign up!
So, back to the KafkaTrap. The question to ask yourself if you think you’re facing this trap is: “Are they assuming I’m guilty regardless of what I say?” *repeat* And if so, you probably just need to walk away.
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?”
