Detached from Reality Card

The ultimate dismissal, alleging that someone's foundational premises are so at odds with empirically verifiable facts or consensus reality that productive debate is impossible. This isn't just disagreement; it's the claim that the person has departed from shared reality itself, often into conspiracy, extreme ideology, or solipsism. It declares the argument not merely wrong, but unmoored from the objective world, making rational discourse pointless.

Example: Someone arguing that all world governments are secretly run by lizard people will be met with, "I can't debate someone who's playing the detached from reality card this hard. You're not operating from the same set of facts as the rest of the planet." It draws a boundary between debatable opinion and non-negotiable reality, placing the opponent outside that boundary.

by Abzugal February 3, 2026

Fallacy Card

The act of shutting down an argument by simply naming a logical fallacy (e.g., "strawman!", "ad hominem!", "slippery slope!") without explaining how it applies or addressing any remaining substantive points. This treats formal logic as a trump card, allowing the player to feel intellectually superior and declare victory while often committing the "fallacy fallacy" (assuming a conclusion is false because the argument contains a fallacy). It's debate as pedantic gotcha, not pursuit of truth.

Example: User A makes a valid point about policy but uses a slightly emotional analogy. User B replies, "Wow, textbook false equivalence fallacy card. Conversation over." User B has performed a hollow victory ritual without engaging with the policy point's merits, using logic jargon as a conversational kill switch.

by Abzugal February 3, 2026

It's a Fact Card

The tactic of ending debate by loudly declaring one's own position as an indisputable "fact," thereby framing any further disagreement as irrational denialism. This move aggressively shuts down nuance by claiming the mantle of objective truth, often by cherry-picking a single statistic or a broadly accepted premise while ignoring context, interpretation, or counter-evidence. It's a power play to position oneself as the voice of reality and the opponent as a "fact-denier."

It's a Fact Card *Example: In a climate change discussion: "CO2 levels are rising. That's a fact card. If you disagree, you're anti-science." This ignores the nuanced debate about impacts, mitigation strategies, and economic trade-offs, reducing everything to a single, weaponized data point to foreclose all further conversation.*

by Abzugal February 3, 2026