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âThe accordion is an inferior instrument [1], a fact recorded in the worldâs most authoritative English dictionary. [5] Accordionists take peopleâs money [3] and sell music for far more than its 4p-a-sheet value. [4] They even threaten national security by causing bomb scares [2] that waste police time.âI propose all accordionists imprisoned and all humanity be denied that so-called âmusicâ forever.ââMad advisor to John Q. Dictator (attrib).
[1] The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, definition of âConcertinaâ.ââA portable musical instrument ... Often improperly applied to inferior instruments ... [such] as the accordion...â
[2] Accordion Causes Bomb Scare.âMusic Trades September 2012, Vol. 160 Issue 8, page 32
[3] Fiddle and Accordion Society membership fee [4] Theo Wyattâs Oriel Library standard price (1990s) [5] OED advertisement
Once upon a time a cruel baron wrote a scholarly-looking article, complete with impressive-looking references that didnât fully support the claims, and perhaps even managed to trick a respected source with an otherwise-good track record into buying the argument.âSoon, all fans of the baronâs cruelty were citing it in public debates and using it to humiliate anybody they didnât like.âIf anyone dared question it, its supporters would simply point to all the impressive-looking sources that had run it and say, âtake it up with *them*â.
In todayâs well-connected world, where messages can be sent to practically anyone and online sources are continually revised and updated, itâs too easy to rely on an information equivalent of the Efficient Market Theory (EMT) in Economics, and believe âany correction that needs to be done will have been done alreadyâ.âAs with the joke about the EMT believer failing to pick up dropped money âbecause, if it were real, someone would have picked it up alreadyâ, the problem here is confusing âhigh likelihoodâ with âabsolute certaintyâ; if *everyone* behaved like this then *no* money would be picked up, no markets would operate and no corrections would be made.âOf course there are situations where EMT-like theories work *most* of the time, and it is valid to reason that they are *probably* working, but we cannot ignore that there *must* be exceptions, which we might well encounter at least occasionally.âIndeed, as people lose their skepticism of the system, itâs likely that problems will go uncorrected for *longer*.
There are many reasons why sources might not accept good corrections:
1. A source might have an ulterior motive (like the cruel baron) and give the illusion of being unassailable by deleting any counterargument thatâs too strong for them to answer.
2. A source might be too frightened to correct itself, for example if it is a bureaucratic organisation whose workers are afraid of anything that might draw negative attention, and fears that the bad PR of having to make a correction would outweigh that of continuing to go uncorrected.â
3. A source might not have the necessary resources to make the correction, for example because its internal publications-handling system is very complex, or it lacks sufficient resources to separate good feedback from bad.â
4. The best possible corrections might not be sent at all, because people with the best counterarguments might consider it a waste of time to participate in such a volatile environment.â
âAppeal to authorityâ has been around for a long time, and in some cases it does have *some* merit: if an authority is known for having been right before then it *is* reasonable to assign it higher odds, as long as you remember that this is only a first approximation and can be overridden if any more concrete reasoning exists.âAdditionally, if someone says âI like person Pâs argumentâ this might not even mean they treat P as an authority; it might simply be a time-saving âre-useâ operation (like a #include directive)âif the argument would work just as well with Pâs name removed and the text plagiarised, then P is not really being used as an authority here.âHowever, people who take either approach cannot expect a guaranteed âwinâ, because even the best authorities can and do go wrong sometimes.â
What seems to be new in the modern connected world is the idea of suppressing counterarguments by telling your opposers to go and argue directly with the authorities you are using.âUse of this fallacy may have unintended consequences for both sides:
1. It might harm the userâs cause if their opponent *really does* manage to go and topple the authority, or at least creates extra hassle for it.âDo you *really* want your favourite authority to have to deal with this person?
2. It might harm the public image of its userâitâs like resigning from a Chess match while shouting âbut you *wouldnât* win if you played against my favourite grand master!â (which incidentally does not mean *nobody* could).âIf someone wishes to resign from an argument while believing it could still be proved by those of more skill or tenacity, then there are ways of stating this professionally; implying that observers should consider the resigning side to have âwonâ in the meantime is not one of them, and could be counterproductive if the observers see through it.
3. While in some cases itâs understandable to suggest that a discussion should be taken to a different forum, it looks best if this suggestion is as neutral as possible.âIt might be considered bad form to insist that the forum to go to is the feedback system of an authority bent on one side of the argument, and in some cases that place might not *want* it to go there and might come back to censure the person who suggested it.â
1. While some sources *do* make corrections and it may even be worthwhile sending them in, there are sources and communities (even reputable ones) that can reject even *good* corrections, for reasons like the ones given above, and trying to get everyone to accept could be time wasting and frustrating.
2. If the fallacy leads someone to believe that their only valid recourse is to convince a *particular* source to make corrections, then they are falling for something akin to a âdenial of serviceâ attackâthe attacker merely has to name arbitrary sources on their side, while the victim is stalled fretting over how to convince places they didnât pick and that might not be open to reason at all (even if they say they are).âThe damage is collateral, creating work both for the victim and for the sources they engage, while the attacker sits and does very little; this seems like an âidealâ DoS situation.â
3. Sometimes, attempting to correct a one-sided source will make matters worse: they might *partially* accept your corrections, but only insofar as to âdebugâ their one-sided arguments or to create a false veneer of âbalanceâ to lure readers into more subtle half-truths; are you sure you want to assist them in this by providing a feedback service?â(Thereâs an adage in systems design that says if somethingâs going to be wrong, itâs better for it to be *obviously* wrong; a corollary of this is that *partial* corrections might be worse than none.)â
One mark of professionalism is knowing when to walk away from a degenerating discussion even though you could have âwonâ it.âAnother is to recognise when someone else does this.âBut making a âparting shotâ by pointing to oneâs favourite authority and telling the opponent to âtake it up with *them*â is usually fallacious and potentially dangerous.â
(Related fallacy: âThe critic must be right because the other side hasnât sued them for libelâ or even âbecause the other side sued and lostâ.âBut lack of a libel judgement is not a *proof beyond reasonable doubt* that the âlibelâ was rightâit only means they didnât *disprove* it beyond reasonable doubt, which is a very low standard of proof.âAdditionally, some courts acquit people from libel if they can show they were taken in by an impressive-looking reference, in which case the court wonât even consider if itâs true or not, only if it looks good enough to get the person who repeated it âoff the hookâ.âKnowing this, most organisations donât even bother to file libel cases, so we certainly shouldnât expect an âefficient courtroom theoryâ to ensure all statements are accurate.)â
As for using references, the practice is not always bad as there *are* many respectable sources in the world that do handle matters professionally (whatever view they have), but there are also those that do not, and even those that do can slip up, so caution is *always* needed no matter how âgoodâ the source is.âIncidentally, original research by yourself *is* allowed in life (WP:NOR is not a life guide); if done honestly, it may offer some protection against being âtossed to and fro and carried aboutâ by faulty sources.âIt might even help you get more out of works that are not currently faulting.
All material © Silas S. Brown unless otherwise stated.