My ex-gf was almost victim to one of the Nintedo Switch selling sites when there was a shortage. They constantly changed domains and had it really professional looking, but buying anything from scalpers is risky especially when it looks too good to be true like that.
I’ve had FedEx deliver my package to a vacant neighborhood home. By the time I went to get the package, it was gone. FedEx did a “thorough” investigation and found that they delivered it correctly. I appealed and never got my money back.
Generally a good approach is to try learning the rules of logic. Logic is all about proving things to be true using only facts. It can also be helpful to try some logic puzzles or riddles which can only be solved using hard logic. Note that this won’t automatically make you a better critical thinker, but it will help you exercise that muscle.
Also, it’s helpful to play devil’s advocate. If you hear someone making an argument, try to imagine how you would dispute that argument if you disagreed with it. It doesn’t matter if you actually agree or not, just imagine you did and think about what your counter argument would be. This is what high school debate teams have to do; they are given a topic and a position and have to defend their position.
It always helps to be aware of the facts, or at least of how to find facts. If you see a debate happening where you can’t tell who is right, do your own research on a site like Wikipedia and try to see what the truth is for yourself. Not every argument has a correct answer, but you will at least be able to see where each side is coming from.
Logic is all about pricing things to be true using only facts.
I know it’s nit-picky but logic can be (and often is) decoupled from facts and truth. An argument can be logically valid and still untrue. For example:
all dogs are cats
this animal is a dog
therefore, this animal is a cat
An argument can be said to be sound when truth is factored in. Only both a valid and true argument is considered to be sound.
An argument can be logically valid and still untrue.
Only if at least one premise is untrue. If however the premises are true and the argument is logically valid, the conclusion is also true.
Interesting to note that the opposite is not necessarily true - flawed premises and/or a flawed argument do not imply an untrue conclusion. Easy to show with an example:
P1 - whales are fish (wrong - they’re mammals)
P2 - fish live only in the sea (wrong - freshwater fish exist)
C - whales live only in the sea (true conclusion from bullshit premises)
…which leads to the “fallacy of fallacy” - "the proposition is backed up by a fallacious argument, thus it is false is on itself fallacious.
This was 30+ years ago, but I misread my tickets and missed my original flight out of Tampa headed to Chicago with a stop in Atlanta. I rebooked another about 3 hours later, but when I got to Atlanta, I found out my original connecting flight to Chicago crashed in Indiana due to ice on the wings. That could have been me. RIP to those who made that flight.
A few weeks ago I shipped a package USPS and I wanted to track it’s progress. I googled USPS tracking and clicked on the first link that popped up. The search result looked like the USPS website and said USPS .com and had the same preview text that the actual website used but it was actually a Google ad that redirected me to supertracking .com. This fake website looked exactly like the USPS tracking website, the domain the web browser displayed was wrong but everything on the page was right, the buttons on the bottom and top even sent you back to the official USPS site. The fake site was set up so that no matter what you entered it would say the address was wrong and you had to update it for a $1.50 address update fee. I would have grown suspicious here except I actually did put the wrong zip code down when I shipped it. Again all the forms looked legit so I put my credit card info in after updating the address, then it wanted me to confirm my bank account login and pin. This is where I stopped because there is no reason for them to collect that data. I saw it was the wrong website and looked back in my history and sure enough I clicked on an ad without realizing it. I reported the domain, reported the ad, and cancelled my credit card. It was really scary how real the website felt, I didn’t suspect anything until they wanted bank info.
These ads are getting so much more prevalent, and so much more subtly marked. Google (and places like reddit and Facebook) designs them to feel as much like organic content as possible. I have a pihole on my home network, in part to prevent exactly the type of mistake you described.
One way that google explicitly enables these types of scams is by allowing advertisers to display a fake url in the ad footer. Ostensibly this is so advertisers can link to an intermediary 3rd-party tracking url instead of the target page without scaring the customers, but this is precisely what allows scammers to display usps.com in the link to a fraud site. Google even uses javascript to display the fake url in the browser tooltip when you hover over the link!
What helped me: “Rationality Rules” on youtube had a video series (and even a tabletop game) about types of logical fallacies with the focus on religious apologetics.
And as you said: Upvotecount show whose opinion/argument is popular with the viewership. There can be a correlation with how sound the argument is logically.
When subscribing to already outlined worlds, I’d think living in the Culture (Ian Banks) sounds quite desirable.
The culture is run by extremely competent AI space ships, the Minds, all scarcity problems are solved, and the Minds not only make sure that all humans have a good place to live, but also animals, each according to their needs and desires.
I know it sounds dismissive, but I would get an Introduction to Logic and Reasoning textbook, and read it and attempt the problems. The internet is great, and you can get a lot from wikis, but you’re not going to beat the amount of useful info condensed into a book like that. The problems will also help you apply the knowledge. Also, since logic doesn’t generally change much over time, you don’t need to worry about getting the most up to date edition.
The only way to really get good at detecting fallacious arguments is practice.
Several years ago, my credit card number was used to buy airplane tickets on a different continent. No big deal, right? I disputed the transaction with my credit card company and expected that to be the end of it. By the way, I had the card in my possession the whole time.
They wrote back and said they confirmed that the charge was legitimate, made in person, and I was responsible for the total amount.
I asked how they confirmed it (they never answered that) and explained that it was very hard for me to be 1/3 of the way across the planet while also making purchases at home such as gas and groceries. I was at work, made purchases with their card at the same time, and had toll booth records — lots of supporting evidence that I never went there to make the purchase.
It didn’t matter, they stuck to the story that it was made in person and was authentic. One of the letters from them said that they had asked the airline who in turn told them I was there doing it in person, but that was the only hint at the process I got.
I’m upset but busy with life, new baby, work, etc. so about a week goes by and another letter comes from them saying that my dispute was successful and I don’t owe the money. It was short, had very little information, and there was no answers to any of the questions I’d asked (questions about the bank policy for disputes, if the decision is final, how they verified I was in another country, how they know my card was there).
In the end, I got my money back but no closure on what happened. It was six years ago and I still feel frustrated about it.
In my sophomore year at college I needed to add a “filler” class to have something to do in campus between my two “real” classes. I chose to take Logic and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Not only was it interesting, it helped me think and analyze arguments. I am pretty sure there are universities that give you free access to the course but it wouldn’t surprise me if you can find logic courses for free on YouTube as well.
Same here. I write software for a living, but my philosophy logic course was gave me a huge lead as the ability to deconstructe what people say into logic blocks is the first step of writing code.
I need AC for about 6 months out of the year (used to be three, maybe three and half) here in the east/south US. The humidity is so bad it makes 90F seem like 110F and even the shade won’t cool you down and it drops very little when the sun goes down.
I’m replying because my electrical panel is being replaced right now and I have no power (the router is on a batt backup)…it heated up in here and I’m able to psychologically deal with it for now…if the installation goes south and I’ll be without power for more than a few hours I’ll take the cat and head to my sister’s place :)
United Fruit Company because they manipulated several countries in Central America and helped the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected government in Guatemala
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