Appeal to Popularity: Difference between revisions
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{{
{{quote|"They voted for the impossible, and the disastrous possible happened instead"|History lesson (talking about ''us''), [[Robert Heinlein]], ''[[Starship Troopers (
==
==== 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
* Any relevant population figure (sixty million Frenchmen, a billion Chinese, etc.)
* [[Common Knowledge]]
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:: The appeal to popularity is built around the belief that something is true (or false) because a lot of people believe it is. This is fallacious because it confuses whether an idea is ''justified'' with whether it is ''accepted''. Demonstrating widespread support for something only proves it is popular, not that it is true.
{{quote|
'''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|
'''Alice:''' Geez, get with the times, The Band suck since they sold out and went mainstream. }}
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* "The Mob Song" from ''[[Beauty and
** Well, they're French, [[Ad Hominem|of course they would say that]].
If the investigated subject isn't an objectively measurable thing, but a social concept, that is indeed determined by popularity. For example:
* "Gold is valuable because many people pay for it."
* ""Trope" is a word meaning "storytelling device", because that's how most people use it."
* "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}}
[[Category:Logical Fallacies]]
[[Category:Appeal
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