Appeal to Popularity: Difference between revisions
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0) |
|||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
{{quote|"They voted for the impossible, and the disastrous possible happened instead"|History lesson (talking about ''us''), [[Robert Heinlein]], ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]''}}
Line 5:
==== Also called ====
* Argumentum ad populum ("appeal to the people")
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131115060707/http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-common-practice.html Appeal to Common Practice]
* [[Quality by Popular Vote]]
* Any relevant population figure (sixty million Frenchmen, a billion Chinese, etc.)
Line 19:
'''Bob:''' Bah, it's just propaganda. If it were really bad for you, why would millions of people do it, hm? }}
::This is the standard version; the belief that a large group is incapable of being incorrect. The fallacy can also be inverted, however, with [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|popularity being taken as a sign something is ''wrong'']]:
{{quote|'''Bob:''' Alice, what's that terrible noise coming out of your speakers? I thought you liked The Band.
Line 47:
* "Most people would agree that is improper to talk in the cinema during a movie, so don't do it."
These concepts, like economical value, linguistic meaning, or etiquette, are things that only exist because a large number of us believe that they exist. If everyone would believe that gold is worthless, [[Worthless Yellow Rocks|its value would disappear]] (this happens at the beginning of the novel ''Galapagos'').
* Election of an official. John Doe is President because he got the most votes. Voting was the method for determining presidency according to the Constitution, it is no more stupid then most political methods, and has the advantage of getting the greatest number of people possible on board with the new government. That is, not an ideal method of divining desirable qualities in someone, but a moderately foolproof method of resolving disagreements with limited amount of fuss -- in much the same way as duels, or "you win the right to actively participate by investing time and risk" political system from above-quoted ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]''.
{{reflist}}
| |||