How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)

96 How to Win Every Argument

did do is quite prepared to deny something else. It is a central
feature of all points where journalistic and political circles touch.
The use of the fallacy has an almost ritual quality to it. Whether it
is under the steady beam of studio lights, or the staccato illu-
mination of flash cameras in the streets, the little tableau is
enacted. The eager pressmen solemnly charge the great man
with one thing, and he, with equal solemnity, shows that he has
not done another.

'Isn't it true, Minister, that you have allowed the living standards of the

poor to fall in real terms?'

'What we have done is to increase by 3.7 per cent the allowance to

childless dependent females, and by 3.9 per cent the allowance to

widows with two children, these increases both being larger than our

opponents ever managed in a single year of their term of office. '

In the more relaxed atmosphere of a studio interview, the

great man will often brazen it out, with royal trumpeters

announcing his ignoratio elenchi:

Well, John, that's not really the point, is it? What we have done is to...

(And you can bet that this certainly isn't the point.)

Obviously you can use the fallacy for close-quarters defensive
work. Your audience will be so impressed by all the things which
you can prove you have not done, that their attention might
wander away from those you have. The more laborious and
detailed your proofs, the less chance there is of anyone
remembering what it was you were actually accused of.
You can also use it in an attacking role, proving all kinds of
things except the ones that matter. There are many things which
can be demonstrated about nuclear power, hunting animals and
refined white sugar which are not relevant to the central topic of