Steelman
Guilt by association
Also called association fallacy, bad company fallacy, reductio ad Hitlerum (a variant).
Rejecting a person or idea because of who else holds it or who they associate with.
What it is
Arguing that a claim is false, or a person is bad, because someone disliked shares the claim or is connected to the person.
The pattern
Disliked person or group G believes X (or knows you). Therefore X is false (or you are bad).
An example
“Hitler was a vegetarian, so there’s something sinister about vegetarianism.”
Vegetarianism has to be judged on its own merits. A terrible person holding a view doesn’t make the view terrible.
Why it fails
Sharing one belief or acquaintance with someone doesn’t mean sharing their other beliefs or faults. Taken seriously, it would condemn anyone who agrees with a villain about anything, including that water is wet.
When it’s not a fallacy
Most lists skip this part. Calling a fair point a fallacy is a mistake too.
It can be fair when
- The association is itself relevant evidence, for instance someone who repeatedly chooses to do business with known fraudsters, or joins a group whose explicit purpose is the thing at issue.
Try one
A question from the app. The wrong answers are its usual look-alikes.
Neighborhood forum. Grace: “The cap limits rent increases to 5% a year, and new buildings are exempt for fifteen years, so builders keep building.” Pete: “Half the groups behind this marched for the Eastside towers in 2015, the project that came in four years late and $80 million over budget. I’m not trusting that crowd with housing again.”
What’s the flaw?
Grace described how the cap works. Pete rejects it because some of its backers also supported a project that went badly, which says nothing about whether this cap would work.
A fair reply
“Say they backed a bad project, so what’s wrong with a 5% cap that exempts new buildings?”
Often confused with
- Ad hominem
Guilt by association is one form of ad hominem: the attack travels through someone else.
- Undistributed middle
Its logical skeleton is often an undistributed middle: “Bad people do X; you do X; so you’re bad.”
Where the name comes from
The name says it: guilt that rubs off on you from the people or ideas you’re linked to. “Bad company fallacy” echoes the old warning that you’re judged by the company you keep. Reductio ad Hitlerum, “reduction to Hitler”, is the extreme case: rejecting an idea because Hitler held it. Philosopher Leo Strauss coined it as a play on reductio ad absurdum, “reduction to absurdity”, a respected form of proof.
Sources
- Fallacies, Bradley Dowden, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- List of fallacies, Wikipedia
In the app
Practice spotting it on arguments that sound real.
Steelman has more examples of guilt by association, how to answer it in a real conversation, and practice rounds that mix it with its look-alikes, so you learn the difference, not just the name. Coming soon to iPhone and Android.
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