Golden Mean Fallacy: Difference between revisions

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Most people know that there are two sides to every issue: their side, and the wrong side. Authors (and people in general) who subscribe to the '''Golden Mean Fallacy''' have another outlook. They believe that there are in fact three sides: the side of the complete morons to the left of them, the side of the complete morons to the right of them, and their own side, which combines the good points of each in sublime harmony while avoiding all the bad. If one position is argued to be superior ''solely'' because it is in the middle, then this is the [[You Fail Logic Forever|logical fallacy]] of [[wikipedia:Argument to moderation|Argument to Moderation]].

'''DOCTOR'''. [''Examining his cheque.''] Very. But this is rather curious. He has also given £50 to the league for opposing the new public-house. }}

* In ''[[Dilbert|The Dilbert Principle]]'', the chapter "How to Get Your Way" suggests using the "Final Suggestion Maneuver" to get the last word in business meetings. The technique involves staying uninvolved throughout the entire meeting as conflicting suggestions are made, then chiming in at the last minute by disguising your suggestion as a composite of everyone else's. The theory behind this maneuver is that everyone will be so desperate to leave that they'll rush to accept your suggestion without questioning it.

** From a political standpoint her position is blatantly obvious, though, her language being extremely middle-class conservative.

** In the third book, Lupin tells an anecdote about a [[I Know What You Fear|boggart]] that came across two people at once; one was most afraid of flesh-eating slugs and the other was most afraid of headless corpses. The boggart, possibly attempting to combine "slug" and "headless", turned into half a slug, which, as Lupin points out, is not nearly as scary.

* ''[[Bruno the Bandit]]''. More about religion than politics, but the principle is the same. Atheists are pig-headed, verbally abusive, and so [[Straw Vulcan|fanatically devoted to "reason"]] that there is no amount of evidence that would convince them to change their minds, [[Flat Earth Atheist|not even a god making an appearance right in front of their eyes]]. The church is dogmatic, inflexible, and more interested in [[Corrupt Church|hoarding wealth to glorify itself]] than in practicing any of the charity it keeps preaching. Yes, thank heavens for the existence of liberal Catholi... ahem, ''[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Ailixism]]''!

** Of course, [[Failure Is the Only Option|is anyone at all ever portrayed in a positive light in that webcomic?]]

** It also unintentionally illustrates how the Golden Mean Fallacy is frequently abused by people who are too lazy or cowardly to defend their own ideas. Say, for example, if you can just make everyone think that "their" beliefs are inherently wrong (like, say, [[Deliberately Bad Example|equating an opposing viewpoint to blending kittens]]), you don't have to explain why ''yours'' are right.

* Also parodied in [http://xkcd.com/690/ this] ''[[Xkcd]]'' cartoon. And directly called out in [http://xkcd.com/774/ this] one.

* Parodied: No matter what the issue, JP Nickel gives you... ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGArqoF0TpQ Both Sides!!!]''

* Discussed in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7hhT22seTY this] Angry Aussie video, as an argument when discussing creationists' arguments against evolution.

{{quote|''Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts.''}}

 

== Western Animation ==

*** Another problem that has been noticed was the forcible downsizing of the German military, took away the new German Government's ability to defend itself from domestic threats while encouraging unemployed service personal to become hatchetmen for radical political organization. Under this theory the disarming of Germany [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|actually aggravated problems.]]

*** Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926, the Soviet Union (founded in 1922) in 1934. From the French POV the problem with the Versailles settlement was that it was left incomplete because the defense treaties with the UK and the US that were supposed to guarantee French security did not come about after the US Congress failed to ratify the Versailles Treaty (which from the French POV leaned too much to the American, or more specifically President Wilson's standpoint) and the entrance of the US into the League of Nations. This gave the British government the pretext it needed not to enter into a permanent defensive alliance with France either, and that in turn caused French policy towards Germany to be much more confrontational because until the mid-1920s it was felt they had to use their transient military superiority to improve a situation largely determined by the much larger population and industrial strength of Germany.

** Perhaps the best interpretation of the Treaty of Versailles is that it was a toss-up between British pragmatism, American idealism and French revanchism, and ended up trying to be all three and failing at each one.

* There are many branches of science that are seen as controversial by laymen but are, in reality, grounded in a lot of evidence. As a result, people will often try to find a common ground behind science that works and quackery that doesn't, sometimes with disastrous results. Take, for example, medicine, which is "controversial" because of influences like the pharmaceutical industry, so often well-meaning newscasters will, "for balance", hold a debate between an accredited medical professionals and (often unqualified) alternative medicine advocates, even though [[Tim Minchin|if alternative medicine were to work, it'd just be called "medicine"]].