komponisto comments on Cleaning up the "Worst Argument" essay - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Yvain 06 September 2012 12:09AM

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Comment author: komponisto 07 September 2012 06:00:20AM 12 points [-]

Whatever you do, please don't change the title to "Guilt by Association". That phrase is a tired cliché, completely devoid of any rhetorical force it may once have possessed. Saying "you're just arguing guilt by association!" will never produce gasps and whispers in the audience, the way that

That's an example of what is technically known as the Worst Argument In The World

(complete with link to dedicated domain) will.

Even worse, this proposed usage would actually be different from the common meaning of "guilt by association" -- and subtly different, which is the worst kind of different. The common usage has to more to do with people than ideas. To use a terrible, political example: consider an opponent of Obama claiming that Obama is a terrorist, because he hangs around with people like William Ayers, and an Obama supporter replying "You're just arguing guilt by association!"