In which Wolf opens day 4's door... Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/_9FF5NJ1HXs
Welcome to the Beware of Wolf Advent Calendar of Bad Thinking. To celebrate the holidays, I'm counting down the days until Christmas with a common type of bad thinking each day, described in 60 seconds. This holiday season, give the gift of good thinking by sharing these videos with your friends!
Today is Day 4: "The Tu Quoque Fallacy"
Everyone agrees that hypocrisy is wrong, or at least a really bad look. "Walking your talk" is a way to earn others' respect, while "talking out of both sides of your mouth" is a good way to lose it.
But just because someone is a hypocrite doesn't mean they're always wrong. As the saying goes, "even a stopped clock is right twice a day," and a lot of people who behave in hypocritical ways actually do know right from wrong. In fact they talk about it a lot.
So if a mom tells her daughter that she should stop smoking because it's bad for her health, mom might seem to be over a barrel when the daughter retorts, "Why should I, you started smoking when you were 16!" Unfortunately, mom is still right, even if she doesn't take her own advice.
This sort of rhetorical move is call the Tu Quoque fallacy, which is Latin for "You too", but is probably better translated: "Well... look who's talking!"
People often resort to Tu Quoque when they're aware that what they are doing is wrong and don’t want to face the consequences of their actions, because it lets them deflect responsibility and avoid the issue at hand. The goal of Tu Quoque is to get the side accused of hypocrisy to retreat and not press the issue.
If you're accused of hypocrisy, stay calm, and avoid the urge to escalate further. It's OK to admit you've made mistakes, but point out that the conversation needs to stay focused on the subject at hand. Ultimately conversations are about finding deeper understanding by facing issues together, not scoring points by "creatively" avoiding them.
Happy Holidays!