Steelman
Red herring
Also called diversion, smokescreen, avoiding the issue, changing the subject.
Bringing up an irrelevant topic to divert attention from the real issue.
What it is
Responding to an issue by raising a different, often more engaging, topic, so the discussion drifts away from the original question and it never gets answered.
The pattern
Topic A is under discussion. B raises topic C, which sounds related but has no bearing on A. The discussion moves to C, and A is dropped or treated as settled.
An example
Reporter: “Did your company knowingly sell faulty water filters?” CEO: “Our company has donated millions to children’s hospitals and employs 5,000 people in this state.”
Charity and jobs don’t answer whether faulty filters were knowingly sold.
Why it fails
Nothing about C bears on whether the claim about A is true. The tactic works by distraction, not evidence.
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 new topic genuinely has to be settled first, because the original question depends on it.
- The added information is relevant context that changes how the question should be answered.
Try one
A question from the app. The wrong answers are its usual look-alikes.
Town hall. Parent: “The private school my son moved to with a voucher doesn’t take the state tests. How do we know it’s actually teaching him?” Program director: “Last year, 400 families from this district got into a school they picked themselves. For a lot of them, it’s the first real say they’ve ever had in their kids’ education.”
What’s the flaw?
The parent asked how anyone can check what the school teaches. How many families got to pick a school is true and warm, but it says nothing about how that teaching gets measured.
A fair reply
“I’m glad we got to pick. Now how do I find out if it’s working?”
Often confused with
- Straw man
A straw man distorts the opponent’s position. A red herring abandons the topic altogether.
- Whataboutism
Whataboutism is a specific red herring that answers criticism with a counter-accusation.
Where the name comes from
A red herring is a herring cured with salt and smoke until it turns reddish and smells strong. The phrase comes from a story about using that smell to pull hounds off a trail. A smokescreen is a cloud of smoke laid down to hide troops or ships from view. Diversion, avoiding the issue and changing the subject say the same thing plainly.
The English journalist William Cobbett popularized the expression in 1807 with a story about using a strong-smelling smoked herring to throw hounds off a rabbit’s trail. The often-repeated claim that hunters trained their dogs with red herrings isn’t supported by the historical record.
Sources
- Fallacies, Bradley Dowden, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Red herring, Wikipedia
In the app
Practice spotting it on arguments that sound real.
Steelman has more examples of red herring, 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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