Debating Fallacies (per Brian Dunning)

[Martin Hash]

The Straw Man Argument
State your position, and your opponent replies not to what you said, but to an exaggerated and distorted caricature of what you said that's obviously harder to defend.

Ad Hominem
From the Latin for "to the person", an attack against the arguer rather than the argument.

Appeal to Authority
Refers to a special authoritative source as validation for the claim being made.

Special Pleading
The justification for some claim is on a higher level of knowledge than your opponent can comprehend, and thus he is not qualified to argue against it.

Anecdotal Evidence
Information that cannot be tested scientifically. In practice this usually refers to personal testimonials and verbal reports.

Observational Selection
Keeping the sample of data that agrees with your premise, and ignoring the sample of data that does not.

Appeal to Ignorance
Argumentum ad ignorantiam considers ignorance of something to be evidence that it does not exist.

Non-Sequitur
From the Latin for "It does not follow", an attempt to justify one claim using an irrelevant premise.

Post Hoc
The idea that some event must have been caused by a given earlier event, simply because it happened later, is post hoc ergo propter hoc - "It happened later so it was caused by".

Confusion of Correlation and Causation
Post hoc assumptions do not necessarily include any correlation between the two observations.

Slippery Slope
Presumes that some change will inevitably result in extreme exaggerated consequences.
The most common subset of the larger fallacy, argument from adverse consequences, which is the practice of inventing almost any dire consequences to your opponent's position.

Excluded Middle
Reductio ad absurdum, reduction to the absurd, assumes that only one of two ridiculous extremes is possible.

Statistics of Small Numbers
Drawing conclusions from data sets that are too small to be meaningful is common in pseudoscience.

Weasel Words
Giving a controversial concept a new, more palatable name.

Fallacy of the Consequent
Drawing invalid subset relationships in the wrong direction.

Loaded Question
Fallacy of multiple questions rolled into one, or plurium interrogationum.

Red Herring
A diversion inserted into an argument to distract attention away from the real point.

Proof by Verbosity
Argumentum verbosium. The practice of burying offering so much information and misinformation that it cannot possibly all be responded to. It may not be possible to construct a cogent argument using proof by verbosity, but it is very easy to construct an irrefutable argument.

Poisoning the Well
Prefacing comments with a derogatory adjective about your opponent or his position.

Bandwagon Fallacy
Argumentum ad populum (appeal to the masses) or argument by consensus, assumes that if most people believe something or act a certain way, it must be correct.

Appeal to Lack of Authority
Authority has a reputation for being corrupt and inflexible, and this stereotype has been leveraged by some who assert that their own lack of authority somehow makes them a better authority.

Proof by Anecdote
Many people believe that their own experience trumps scientific evidence, and that merely relating that experience is sufficient to prove a given claim.

Michael Jordan Fallacy
Used to impugn the motives of anyone in the world, in an effort to prove they are driven by greed and don't care about anyone else's problems: "Just think if Michael Jordan had used all his talents and wealth to feed third world children, rather than to play a sport."

Proof by Lack of Evidence
The lack of evidence that would support a conspiracy theory is due to the evil coverup, thus the lack of evidence for the conspiracy is, in and of itself, evidence of the conspiracy.

Appeal to Quantum Physics
This is a form of special pleading, a scientific-sounding way of claiming that the way a magical product or service works is beyond the customer's understanding; in this case, based on quantum physics.

Proof by Mommy Instinct
Nobody understands health issues better than a mom.

Argument from Anomaly
Anything that's anomalous, or otherwise not immediately, absolutely, positively, specifically identifiable, automatically becomes evidence of the paranormal.

Chemical Fallacy
The word “chemical” prefacing any product or technology to produce fright.

Appeal to Hitler
Godwin's Law, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Proof by Victimization
Tragedy that gives the victim insight that others don't have.

Better Journal Fallacy
A credulous magazine referred to as a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Appeal to Dead Puppies
Tugging at the heartstrings with a tragic tale to quash dissent.

per Martin Hash
Casting Suspicion
Implying that your opponent is involved in some way.

Stalking Horse
A false pretext concealing someone's real intentions.

Disingenuous
Not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.

Accusatory
Claiming that the opponent has done something wrong.

Dismissive
Insinuating that the opponent or opponent's argument is unworthy of consideration.

Bullying
Persecution in the form of ridicule, belittlement, scorn & harassment.

Ganging Up
Multiple opponents targeting a single individual.

Brigading
Intentional ganging up with large numbers.

Stalking
Following a particular or person or subject making derogatory statements after every comment.

Obtuse
Intentionally repeating a false or illogical narrative despite proof otherwise.

Presumption/Assumption of Fact
Posing a question already assuming the central fact has been established to put an opponent on the defensive, when that is the real question up for debate.

Fact Not in Evidence
Statement something as a fact when it has not yet been established to be true.