Dirty trick: Causing Suspicion
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Causing suspicion is in many ways similar to the “poisoning the well” (a type of ad hominem argument) fallacy. In this video, numerous examples of this dirty trick are provided.
Transcript:
Dirty trick: Causing suspicion
— When we accuse someone of something, the person won’t be able to get rid of it completely as much as he/she tries.
— We have all heard the expression “No smoke without fire”. Most people really believe in this expression within their minds.
— Have you heard that “Roya” and that guy “Sepehr” have slept together?
— I didn’t believe it but I feel sorry for them.
— Shut up! Wasn’t she in a relationship with “Pedram”?
— Well, it isn’t so farfetched because she was always flirting with “Sepehr”.
— [somebody else] Did you hear what has happened? “Roya” and “Sepehr”…
And this event repeats every day in the virtual and non-virtual world. A screenshot of the messages and Boom! An accusation of financial corruption and Boom! An accusation of sexual assault, cheating, selling out your country, and etc…
Of course a lot of these accusations are true and right. But the fact that it’s true or false does not make a difference in most people’s reactions. Most people tend to share news just by seeing the headline and without knowing it’s source or details and in less than a second the internet is filled with that piece of news.
We live in a world that people and their phones have turned into busy judges, assessing many articles a day just by reading the headlines, without even opening the case files, and abusers know very well how to use peoples emotional and hasty reactions to their advantage.
For example, a week before the elections, during an election debate, one of the candidates accused his opponent of a very heavy case of financial corruption, and this very accusation causes the candidate’s credibility to suffer a lot of damage in the audience’s minds.
The rival candidate will not be able to clear his name completely from the minds of the people coming to vote in the space of one week, as much as he tries. It might come out after the elections that the accusation was false, but it’s too late. His rival has won the election and it’s extremely difficult to change the results of the election.
Causing suspicion is one of the dirtiest tricks. Even if there is nothing, people still talk.
Reference:
Richard, L. E. (2012). The Thinker’s Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation.