The internet made me abreast of an informal fallacy which I have dubbed:
The Hurt-Feelings Fallacy
When a premise and/or conclusion of an argument hurts somebody’s feelings or hypothetically could do so in the future, then the argument is problematic. Because of this, the conclusion and the premises are all false. Similarly, if the corollaries of the argument could cause hurt-feelings then the whole argument is false. Also, and most important of all, if the person making the argument has or potentially could stimulate hurt-feelings, then all of the arguments that person makes are totally false.
This is a pernicious fallacy and one which is difficult not to commit. For instance:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
Could be responded to thus:
I do not want to die, that hurts my feelings. That argument is unsafe.
Also, one could say,
If I accept the records about Socrates, then I might have to consider the historicity of the Bible, but the Bible hurts my feelings.
This fallacy has allowed me to disprove almost everything. My favorite example is this:
You have disagreed with me. You have given me hurt-feelings, therefore your whole ideology is wrong. Also, you are not a person.
Happy nihilism!
In real life, many people do think that the hurt-feelings fallacy is a real refutation of hard to accept truths or uncomfortable arguments. This is absurd. Hopefully this silly song will cheer you up!
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