Appeal to shame

An appeal to shame is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone's actions or arguments are described as "shameful" (meaning, looked down upon by others in society) and therefore wrong.

Cogito ergo sum Logic and rhetoric

Key articles

Logical fallacy Syllogism Argument

General logic

Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise Category mistake Fallacy of opposition Logically Fallacious Original position fallacy Paraconsistent logic

Bad logic

Damning with faint praise Fallacy of accident Genuine but insignificant cause How do you know? Were you there? Straw man Whataboutism v - t - e

The fallacy is an emotional appeal and an informal fallacy.

Alternate names

• appeal to guilt
• political correctness
• appeal to pride
• argumentum ad superbium
• ad hominem ridicule
• appeal to humor
• appeal to mockery
• appeal to ridicule
• horse laugh
• refutation by caricature

Form

Someone holds a shameful opinion:

P1: X asserts Y.

P2: Y is shameful.

C: X is shameful.

Someone shameful holds an opinion:

P1: X asserts Y.

P2: X is shameful.

C: Y is false.

Appeal to ridicule

An appeal to ridicule is an appeal to shame with mocking laughter in the background. The fallacy occurs when the sole purpose of an argument is to make people laugh at someone, and use that social pressure to force someone to change their beliefs. While humor can be useful (especially in reductio ad absurdum arguments), it is not the primary point of an argument, and mocking should never be.

Appeal to pride

An appeal to pride is an inverse form of an appeal to shame. Instead of saying that something is shameful, something is described as something you should be proud of, e.g., "aren't you proud of our troops?"

Examples

• "Aren't you ashamed for having that opinion?"
• "Only the most degenerate, morally depraved, cretinous imbecile could fail to see the truth of my argument."
• May be combined with Godwin's law (for example: Aren't you ashamed to be in favor of building highways, just as Hitler did?)
• Oh, you're only 13. You can't have an interest in economics.

See also

• Essay:Appeal to ridicule (written by an anti-RW member)
• Straw Man
• Appeal to fear

External links

• See the Wikipedia article on Appeal to ridicule.
• Appeal to Ridicule, Nizkor Project
• Appeal to Guilt, Bruce Thompson
• ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION, Objectivism