Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Ok, let’s start off by reviewing a fallacy we covered earlier this season, the Moralistic Fallacy. Ok, do you want to hit pause real quick and see if you can remember what The Moralistic Fallacy is? The Moralistic Fallacy happens when someone assumes that something must be true or false based on whether it is morally desirable or undesirable.
The question to ask yourself if you think you’re facing a Moralistic Fallacy is this: “You might think it’s wrong or think it’s right, but does that mean it’s not real?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 163.
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, the Traitorous Critic Fallacy. The Traitorous Critic Fallacy happens when someone brings up a criticism of a particular group and is told that they should just leave the group, rather than actually taking the time to look at their criticism or their argument to see if there is any validity. This fallacy is also called Ergo Decedo, which is a Latin phrase that means “Therefore, I leave.” And let me explain the name a little more. Basically, it’s saying that if you’re criticizing the group, it’s because you either don’t appreciate the values & customs of the group, or you’re flat-out traitorous, so we’ll treat you like a traitor and the best thing you can do is just leave.
Here’s a simple example of what this sounds like. You just got hired for your first job at an office in town. The company you work for is sending out a mailing to advertise a new product, and you’re tasked with writing out the addresses on all the envelopes, which means you have to write the return address…200 times. After the first 20, your hand is tired and you’re thinking of how much more efficient it would be to have a stamp or even labels to do all these return addresses. You mention it to your new boss only to be told, “That’s just how we do it around here. If you don’t like it you can find a new job!”
The problem behind the Traitorous Critic Fallacy is that it’s avoiding the argument. If someone has a criticism, telling them to just leave does nothing to address their concerns, it’s just avoiding addressing their concerns. This is essentially the adult version of stomping out of the room. Now, I do get where this can happen, and honestly, may even be necessary at times. Sometimes, people are just flat-out complainers and they find the bad in everything. Have you ever known someone like that? Where all they do is find fault and complain about what the group is doing and no amount of listening to them or trying to make them happy will ever make them happy. In an instance like that, they really do just need to leave the group and go find somewhere else to complain or be happy, but I don’t consider that situation to be the Traitorous Critic Fallacy…that’s just having good boundaries with miserable people.
The Traitorous Critic is another fallacy we see a lot in politics. I have seen many times where people said, “Well, so & so is the President, and if you don't like it you can leave the country.” And I’ve even seen where celebrities have said that if a certain politician gets voted in as president that they’re going to leave the country! To my knowledge, none of them left, by the way, but it’s almost like they were committing the fallacy against themselves just to show how much they didn’t like someone.
Question to ask yourself: “Are you just avoiding the argument?” *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?”
