We live in dark times.
Dark times of rampant, media-supported climate change doubt and denial mongering. Dark times when global temperatures are hitting new all-time record highs and extreme weather and climate change related events are growing in scope, scale, and danger. Dark times when it is becoming all-too-obvious that the fossil fuel companies of the world are committed to continue burning their dangerous and heat amplifying fuels regardless of the cost or pain or devastation inflicted upon others. Inflicted on persons, communities and the very nations of this world. Dark times when public officials level unfounded and baseless attacks against the very science upon which we depend to track the dangerous and growing crisis that is human-forced warming of the globe. From: robertscribbler.com
GR: I suppose we’ve never been safe trusting our elected leaders or our media. We should extend our skepticism to business leaders and religious leaders as well.
School-aged children and adults often hear conflicting views on important issues. Young people I know sometimes ask my opinion on interesting ideas or arguments they’ve heard. They ask because they think I have knowledge about the topic. I usually don’t, but sometimes I can spot fallacies they might not recognize, and this lets me give them a helpful opinion.
A fallacious argument can be invalid for several reasons. Wikipedia defines more than 100 fallacies that people intentionally or accidentally use to make false arguments. Some of the fallacies are difficult to spot without prior knowledge. Learning to recognize the long lists of fallacies takes time and that’s why I suggest that school curricula always include the subject.
