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The Only Game in Town Fallacy

April 18, 2018

What Is the Only Game in Town Fallacy

Suppose we’re in my living room, watching TV. We suddenly hear a peculiar noise, one we have never heard before. We are completely baffled about its origin. “It must be a unicorn flying over the house,” I say. “Get out of here!” you reply. “Well, do you have another explanation?” I retort. You shake your head, at loss for words. “Then I’m right, it’s a unicorn,” I say. Welcome to the only game in town fallacy.

the only game in town fallacy
Just because you have no better explanation for something, it doesn’t mean the only one is also the correct one

The only game in town fallacy is essentially a placeholder. It is not a valid argument, because it is nothing more but an ad hoc explanation. In other words, it’s something you come up with to simply avoid saying “I don’t know”. The idea of divinity is essentially nothing more but the only game in town fallacy. “God did it” – another version is “Aliens did it”

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Bandwagon Fallacy; or, Welcome to the Internet

January 28, 2018

Being ignorant is bad, but being ignorant while pretending to know is even worse. I was browsing the topics of an online forum, and a thread on the democracy of ancient Athens drew my attention. One of the participants mentioned Plato’s praise of democracy as a form of government, and several others agreed.

Now, that in itself was surprising to see on a forum (and a Greek forum, to boot), since you’d expect someone bothering to comment on such a thread to know that Plato despised democracy. But there was worse in store for me: I came face-to-face with the Bandwagon Fallacy – or Appeal to Popularity. Welcome to the Internet.

Bandwagon Fallacy
Athens was the birthplace of democracy, Plato established the Academy in Athens, ergo, Plato loved democracy, right? Well, some guys on the Internet think so, therefore who am I (or Plato) to say otherwise…
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