Hats Off wrote:As one who works with Excel, I understand Circular Arguments. The rest of this - not so much so.
Most of these aren't that hard, and they have one thing in common: they are ways to avoid simply discussing the subject in a straightforward way, often by injecting an emotional shiny object and insisting that everyone focus on that. Squirrel!
So when you look at this list, think about how each approach distracts from the subject.
The Ad Hominem - say something nasty about the other person, attack them personally, and make sure that attack goes on for post after post. Whenever they try to return to the subject, make them look bad in a way that puts them on the defensive.
Appeals to Authority - quote some authoritative figure. This is a logical fallacy because any authority can be wrong. On the other hand, real authorities are often worth listening to - an authoritative opinion doesn't settle the issue, but it is useful information, especially if it is directly relevant to the subject.
Straw Man - instead of discussing what someone else says, tell them what their opinion is and debate that. The other person doesn't get to speak for themselves, you keep telling them what people like them believe and insist that you know better than they do what they think, they are being deceptive if they don't agree with your strawman portrayal of them, etc.
Appeal to Ignorance - this is the absolute truth, I dare you to prove me wrong. In other words, unless you can conclusively prove that something is false, I insist that it is true. Worse, it's often combined with the claim that there's something immoral about any attempt to prove it wrong, combining an ad hominem attack with an appeal to ignorance.
And on it goes.
For the most part, if you simply try to let each person speak for themselves, give simple and direct answers, and let the facts lead to the conclusion instead of treating it as a debate that needs to be won, you don't have to focus too much on these things. For the most part, when some of these things crop up, someone is playing games with you and you can probably feel that anyway.