That's a logical fallasy!

[Faith No More]

Anybody else think this is one of the stupidest things that is commonly said on internet forums? Countless times across countless forums some smug asshole who isn't as smart as he thinks he is will quote someone, highlight some small part of what they said, declare it to be so and so fallacy and declare intellectual victory.

What's the problem? The first problem is that half the time the people are wrong anyway. There are so many people who don't understand the logical fallacies and misuse them. Almost always they fail to offer even an explanation as to why said highlighted line is the fallacy. They just declare it to be so, jerk themselves off at being so clever and move on to scan the next post they disagree with is so and so fallacy that they don't really understand.

Second. It's just lazy. Debate is supposed to have points and counter points. So what they used a logical fallacy? Shouldn't that make it that much easier to intellectually challenge them? You would think so but it's way less difficult to just write a line or two and not actually think about what the person had to say or why they said it.

Third, all of those people are hypocrits. Ever here of the fallacy fallacy dipshits? Something isn't true or untrue just because it's a logical fallacy. You can use fallacious arguments to argue anything. Example: Evolution is true because Richard Dawkins says it is true. I just used an argument from authority. Does that mean that evolution is not true? Of course not. If you run across incorrect or poorly thought out information it should be up to you to counter it in a way thats not so lazy, stupid and hypocritical.

It's an easy maneuver and it allows someone with no cohesive response to appear as if they have a valid criticism. It's the grown-up version of saying "Nuh-uh" on the playground to the kid that just made you look silly. It's frustrating as hell, but it's also an indicator that the discussion is better off abandoned.