Unpopular Opinions About Relationships

[Emerald]

4 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Yep - nailed it.

Once you get used to spotting this type of fallacy it is easy to navigate. But if you aren't well versed in it, when engaging, it has a feeling of being slippery, sly and just not right. Even when you cannot put your finger on it. You have to really pin the person down on the original claim and disregard the "Motte". Often repeatedly. 

It is quite a dishonest and disingenuous way of interacting as it can be a little ego wriggly mechanism. Sometimes people do present arguments that aren't initially clear and then rescind or amend their original claim - but they usually state this (for clarity to seek truth) rather than continue to push a line of reasoning that has changed in original premise without qualifying the initial mistake. I actually think some people engage in this way totally subconsciously and are surprised by the fallacious reasoning being called out.

I view it mostly as egoicaly attempting to preserve the appearance of having been right all along.

That's definitely true that it can be a slippery tactic when you don't know how it works.

And people can definitely be doing it unconsciously as well.

And I'm not sure how much the OP is doing this tactic consciously or unconsciously. I just know that he does it a lot.

He'll come out with a really bold claim (or even sometimes a really extreme story). 

Then, when he inevitably gets challenged on it, he retreats to softer and more reasonable arguments as though that was what he was arguing all along. Or he frames the extreme story as just joking or trolling.

So, he's either putting out controversial perspectives because it's what he genuinely thinks. But then he can't take the heat when he's challenged, and he instinctively retreats to the Motte.

Or he's doing it on purpose in order to frame controversial opinions (about women/Muslims/etc.) as being normal and reasonable in order to try to normalize those controversial opinions in this space.

[Ulax]

4 hours ago, something_else said:

Are the goalposts of your argument on roller skates on an ice rink?

Hahahaha