Fallacies in argument were a compulsory part of my Year 12 English course in Victoria in the late Sixties. We learnt about straw men and red herrings, ad hominem attacks, appeals to authority and more. In hindsight I’d add a popular new category: failure to engage. Many ‘debates’ now take place at cross-purposes, where key points are never answered but just ignored and deflected, with all the agility of Neo in The Matrix dancing on the walls to avoid being hit by bullets.
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