Brooks Holt Fallacy

"When someone complains about a situation they put themselves in while possibly using it to insult another person"

"You complaining about losing in a game due to lag is a Brooks Holt Fallacy.

by chiefkeefbunda214 October 28, 2025

Did a Fallon

To voluntarily cuddle up to fascists, evil-doers, and oligarchs, in public. To normalize those who hurt others because, at that moment, they’re not hurting you, personally.

I used to like that actor. But then he did a Fallon.

by Heddy Iron December 3, 2025

The 'Glass Mousepad' Fallacy

An informal fallacy in which you lambast or criticize someone for doing something unhealthy when you yourself do comparably unhealthy habits or actions. Essentially, it is hypocrisy specifically in the form of habit.

"Hey Conner, it's ridiculous how you spend hundreds of dollars on glass mousepads. That is such a waste of money, for shame!"
"How utterly preposterous of you to propose, Anthony; In actuality, you are committing the 'glass mousepad' fallacy. Why is it bad when I have unhealthy spending habits when you spend hundreds of dollars on Touhou merchandise? Why don't you practice what you preach!?"

by jacqueley December 11, 2025

Half Chub Fallacy

Someone arguing that directs the substance of the argument specifically to a spot which brings them pleasure to talk about.

Muxaio: You can’t treat me worse because I have a lower VISA status than you
Alp: That’s such a red herring fallacy and this isn’t applicable to the job status that you can’t get over

Alp has a pleasure for Fallacies
Muxaio: Don’t get too excited now, that’s clearly a half chub fallacy. We know you masturbate to the thought of fallacies.

by The half chub December 17, 2025

Literal Joke Fallacy

When someone decides a joke is “not funny” just because they took it literally or didn’t realize it was a joke, even though it was meant humorously and others understood it that way

Person 1: “I’d rather eat dogs than this shit.”

Person 2: “HAHA!”

Person 3: “LOL!”

Person 4: “No you would not.”

Person 1: It was a joke chill.”

Person 4: “Jokes are supposed to be funny.”

Person 1: “That’s a Literal Joke Fallacy.”

by Dogoraga January 23, 2026

Hard Problem of Logical Fallacies

The frustrating reality that identifying a logical fallacy in someone's argument does not automatically prove their conclusion wrong, nor does it validate your own. Fallacies are flaws in reasoning, not truth detectors. The "hard problem" is the temptation to use fallacy labels (e.g., "that's just an ad hominem!") as a rhetorical knockout punch, ending the discussion while providing zero substantive counter-argument. This reduces critical thinking to a game of fallacy bingo, where the goal is to spot errors rather than collaboratively pursue truth. A conclusion reached via fallacious reasoning can still be accidentally true, and a logically pristine argument can lead to a false conclusion if its premises are wrong.

Example: Person A: "We should fix the bridge. The engineer who designed it is a known liar!" Person B: "Ad hominem fallacy! Invalid argument, the bridge is fine." B has correctly spotted a fallacy (attacking the person, not the bridge's condition), but has done nothing to assess the actual safety of the bridge. The hard problem: Winning the logical battle doesn't win the factual war. The bridge might still be crumbling, but the conversation is now dead, replaced by a smug scorecard of who used logic correctly. Hard Problem of Logical Fallacies.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Hard Problem of Fallacies

The broader epistemic dilemma that human reasoning is inherently and ubiquitously fallible. We are not logic machines; we use heuristics, emotions, and social biases to navigate the world. The "hard problem" is that if we strictly applied formal logical standards, almost all everyday reasoning, political discourse, and even scientific hypothesis generation would be riddled with fallacies (appeals to probability, anecdotal reasoning, appeals to intuition). This creates a paradox: to demand pure logical form is to paralyze human thought and communication, yet to ignore fallacies is to descend into irrationality. Navigating this requires pragmatic wisdom, not just a textbook of errors.

Example: A scientist has a "hunch" about an experiment based on a single weird result (anecdotal fallacy). This illogical leap leads them to a groundbreaking discovery. The hard problem: The fallacy was a crucial creative step. If a logic purist had stopped them, saying "That's statistically insignificant, you're committing a fallacy," progress would have halted. This shows that fallacies aren't just bugs in our thinking; they're sometimes features of our exploratory, pattern-seeking minds. The challenge is knowing when to tolerate them as scaffolding and when to demolish them as faulty structures. Hard Problem of Fallacies.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026