Sophistry

Sophistry (pronounced as SAH-fiss-tree) is a style of argumentation that has superficial appeal but is actually defective.

Examples:

• "impose gun control to reduce crime"; in fact, guns prevent more crimes than they cause
• "give the mother automatic custody of children in divorce to reduce divorce"; in fact, that leads to more divorce as it reduces incentives to maintain a marriage
• "raise taxes to increase revenues"; in fact, creating disincentives to earn not only directly decreases revenues by decreasing the amount of taxable income but also stifles economic growth
• "give children contraceptives to reduce teen pregnancy and disease"; in fact, abstinence education does both better
• "support so-called 'civil rights' organizations and leaders to oppose racism"; in fact, they are the primary promoters of racism today
• "listen to the experts"; in fact, the Best of the Public may have insights that far surpass those of the experts