The genetic fallacy

I’ve been a longtime fan of https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/. I think their work serves a valuable public purpose, even if I also believe that the percentage of people in my country who try to think critically on a regular basis is in the low single digits.

A while back, I ordered a pack of their “Critical Thinking Cards”, which give summaries of 24 common logical fallacies and 24 common biases. They also include these neat call-out cards, which I’m tempted to put one of in my wallet:

Now, the reality is, I’m a human being, and I don’t always live up to my belief that I have a rational view of the world. So looking over these logical fallacy and bias cards gives me an opportunity to reflect on that particular fallacy or a particular bias. I figure writing a reflection once per week on one chosen at random seems good, so here goes.

(picks a card)

Ah, the genetic fallacy.

Oh, who among us, &c.

If Fox News reported that the President killed 100 people with a riding lawn mower, I would be, let’s just say, highly skeptical. If they reported that the President had partaken in illegal stock trades netting him millions of dollars, I’d be equally skeptical because it came from that source, but what if I was wrong?

Most logical fallacies, I think, arise from a real lack of epistemic humility; that is, an overconfidence in what one “knows” to be “true”. Having said that, there’s a huge gap between, as someone once wise said, keeping an open mind and opening your mind so much your brains fall out. The genetic fallacy, like all of the others, is a tricky one, because if one is repeatedly given evidence that a source is good (= producing verifiable truths about the world) OR bad, one tends to therefore believe that anything that source claims is likely to be true or false, depending. It’s a shortcut to thinking.

However, the problem for human beings and the problem with identifying these logical fallacies as problematic is…we rely on inductive thinking of this “shortcut” type every day. If you REALLY thought through EVERY decision you ever made, looking for potential fallacies, you’d never get out of bed in the morning. The genetic fallacy is really just an example of inductive reasoning that’s sort of gone wrong somewhere.

Finally, to complain a bit about the example on the card, I’m not sure the senator quoted really believes the media is unreliable; I do believe that the senator believes that the people they are speaking to believe that, which is to me the real problem. People in power take advantage of the logical fallacies they know their audiences will easily make. Everyone, except politicians on the “left” in the United States, seems to know this.