Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off with a quick review of a fallacy we covered earlier this season: Whataboutism. As in someone saying, “Well, what about this…” or “What about that…?” Hit pause real quick if you want to try to remember what Whataboutism is. Whataboutism is often used as an argumentative tactic where someone uses a “What about” question to deflect from the issue at hand or to avoid answering a question.
Question to ask yourself if you’re facing the “Whataboutism” Fallacy is a really difficult one, you ready?: “Did you just try to dodge my question?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 87.
Speaking of review: promote E-book
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, the Appeal to Closure Fallacy. The Appeal to Closure Fallacy happens when someone argues that a particular issue or question should be closed, settled, or resolved because people are tired of discussing it, or because they feel a strong emotional need for closure.
A simple example of this would be if there was a terrorist attack in a building in the downtown area of Denver. The people of Denver are naturally afraid and angry and demand justice. A suspicious-looking Muslim man was seen at the vicinity of the attack site that same morning, and when it was discovered he had no alibi, he was charged with the attack. Ok, do you see the fallacy? The people were afraid and angry & demanding justice so the city officials felt pressure to give them an answer, to find who did it and lock them up so they can’t do it again. In this instance, it didn’t matter that there was no real evidence that this man had committed the attack, they just needed someone to take the blame so they could get closure & move on.
What’s wrong with the thinking here is that, while the desire for closure is a real psychological phenomenon that does have an effect on the emotional & mental well-being of individuals, using "closure" as a reason for accepting evidence that would otherwise not be accepted, is wrong. Accepting a wrong conclusion is still wrong, even if it makes you feel better. And here’s the reality, sometimes in life, we don’t always get closure. We don’t always get to know WHY or HOW something happened and we have to live with that. For instance, women who lose a baby in a miscarriage don’t always get to know why it happened. People who get robbed don’t always find out who did it or get their stuff back. It’s one of the hard parts of life. But falsely accusing someone or accepting false evidence just for the sake of closure is wrong also.
Here's another example of an appeal to closure fallacy:
Person A: "I don't think we should continue investigating the allegations of fraud in the recent election. It's been months since the election, and people are tired of all this controversy. It's time to move on and focus on other issues."
Person B: "But there are still many unanswered questions and inconsistencies that need to be addressed. We can't just sweep this under the rug and ignore it."
Person A: "I understand your concerns, but we need closure on this issue. It's time to accept the results and move forward. Continuing to investigate will only prolong the divisiveness and uncertainty."
In this example, Person A is using an appeal to closure fallacy by arguing that the issue should be closed and not investigated further because of the emotional need for closure, rather than addressing the actual evidence and arguments for or against the allegations of fraud.
Another way we’ve seen this fallacy happen in our country is when there was a high-profile death, especially in an instance where someone was killed by a police officer. Oftentimes, people just take what little bit they’re told of the person’s death in the news and from that information, they feel like they know what happened and because they’re hurting & afraid, they demand the arrest or the evisceration of someone’s character before the authorities are even able to make their investigation and before the trial even happens! They feel like this demand for ‘justice’ will give them the closure they’re wanting and so they don’t even care if it’s true or not.
So, the question to ask yourself when someone is making an Appeal to closure is this: “Is that really what happened?” *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?”
