One very notable pathology is a form of argument that, reduced to
essence, runs like this: “Your refusal to acknowledge that you are
guilty of {sin,racism,sexism, homophobia,oppression…} confirms that you are guilty of {sin,racism,sexism, homophobia,oppression…}.” I’ve been
presented with enough instances of this recently that I’ve decided that
it needs a name. I call this general style of argument “kafkatrapping”,
and the above the Model A kafkatrap. In this essay, I will show that
the kafkatrap is a form of argument that is so fallacious and
manipulative that those subjected to it are entitled to reject it based
entirely on the form of the argument, without reference to whatever
particular sin or thoughtcrime is being alleged. I will also attempt to
show that kafkatrapping is so self-destructive to the causes that
employ it that change activists should root it out of their own speech
and thoughts.
Chances of them rooting it out? Just about zero.
2 comments:
Eric Raymond is a very clever guy.
The guy at Slate Star Codex is about as clever on such things.
This business of "Kafka Trapping reminds me of "Latent Homosexuality", which was a big thing in the 60's. It also reminded me of the idea of unconscious racism. I was at a party at my leftist relatives, and their friend the Queen Bee was holding forth on how we're all racist and calling a black person by the wrong name was racist. Now I don't directly confront and refute her, I am a guest, but I tell how our (my brothers and my parents called us by the wrong name, and I said I thought it was because the names all started with the same letter. I also said how I had mentioned this to a boy in my explorer post when I was 18 who told me that HIS parents did that, and they were Steven, Paul Mike and Charley, very dissimilar names. My SIL then told how her cousin calls her sons by the wrong names but they know who she really means, and it was funny to see.
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