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Everything You Believe Is Wrong
If you are an Expert, professional, bureaucrat, teacher, professor, Democrat or Republican, liberal, progressive or conservative, consider yourself in any way in the educated classes, the odds are high that everything you believe is wrong.
Not every thing. Not simple things. Only the most important things. If you are in the majority, then a great deal of what you hold true about the world and of life is false .
Here is a small sample of things that majority of educated believe are false, but which are instead Science cannot answer every question put to it; It is not always right to correct a wrong; There is no wisdom in crowds; A consensus among elite academics does not prove the belief of the elite academics is true; That you are offended is irrelevant to whether a proposition is true or false; Defining yourself as your sexual desire is nonsensical; Voting does not make the majority position right and the minority position wrong; Voting is a leading cause of discord; Democracy is rarely to be desired; You cannot choose to believe you do not have free will; God exists.
These are only some of the ideas and arguments explored in this book. The majority, and that means likely you, are wrong about all of them. This is no idle claim. It will be proved chapter by chapter.
Every bad or invalid or unsound argument contains a fallacy or mistake in thinking. Nobody knows the complete list of ways thought can go wrong, and it has even been surmised such a list is endless. History supports this contention. There is ample reason to believe the human race is congenitally insane.
Some mistakes are more common than others. Every age has its own favorite forays into fiction, driven by fashion, fad, and fantasy, all of which are enforced by the culture's self-appointed Watchers. The balance of truth versus error shifts in time, yet the current age is more eager than average to ferret away any shiny object it finds and call it precious.
Fallacies therefore have tremendous inertia. Some mental misconstructions are permanent fixtures. I have evocative and memorable nicknames, at least for speakers of English, of the most popular and important fallacies of our day. We step through each, showing how it is false.
Here are just a few of our age's favorite Controversial Fallacy, Non-Fallacy Fallacy, Appeal to Non-Authority, So Yer's Old Man, Bluff & Bluster Fallacy, You Bigot Fallacy, Hate Speech Fallacy, Bureaucrat Fallacy, One True Spartacus Fallacy, Wisdom of Crowds Fallacy, I Can't See Another Way Fallacy; many, many others, including the ever-popular Meta Fallacy. This is a fallacy that says a thing is true because it is a fallacy. Strange as it seems, it is most convincing.
More at //wmbriggs.com
Not every thing. Not simple things. Only the most important things. If you are in the majority, then a great deal of what you hold true about the world and of life is false .
Here is a small sample of things that majority of educated believe are false, but which are instead Science cannot answer every question put to it; It is not always right to correct a wrong; There is no wisdom in crowds; A consensus among elite academics does not prove the belief of the elite academics is true; That you are offended is irrelevant to whether a proposition is true or false; Defining yourself as your sexual desire is nonsensical; Voting does not make the majority position right and the minority position wrong; Voting is a leading cause of discord; Democracy is rarely to be desired; You cannot choose to believe you do not have free will; God exists.
These are only some of the ideas and arguments explored in this book. The majority, and that means likely you, are wrong about all of them. This is no idle claim. It will be proved chapter by chapter.
Every bad or invalid or unsound argument contains a fallacy or mistake in thinking. Nobody knows the complete list of ways thought can go wrong, and it has even been surmised such a list is endless. History supports this contention. There is ample reason to believe the human race is congenitally insane.
Some mistakes are more common than others. Every age has its own favorite forays into fiction, driven by fashion, fad, and fantasy, all of which are enforced by the culture's self-appointed Watchers. The balance of truth versus error shifts in time, yet the current age is more eager than average to ferret away any shiny object it finds and call it precious.
Fallacies therefore have tremendous inertia. Some mental misconstructions are permanent fixtures. I have evocative and memorable nicknames, at least for speakers of English, of the most popular and important fallacies of our day. We step through each, showing how it is false.
Here are just a few of our age's favorite Controversial Fallacy, Non-Fallacy Fallacy, Appeal to Non-Authority, So Yer's Old Man, Bluff & Bluster Fallacy, You Bigot Fallacy, Hate Speech Fallacy, Bureaucrat Fallacy, One True Spartacus Fallacy, Wisdom of Crowds Fallacy, I Can't See Another Way Fallacy; many, many others, including the ever-popular Meta Fallacy. This is a fallacy that says a thing is true because it is a fallacy. Strange as it seems, it is most convincing.
More at //wmbriggs.com
458 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2021
44 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 15, 2022
If you want to read a good book on Cognitive Bias and Logical Fallacies read “You’re not so Smart” by David McRaney. It breaks down every Bias and Fallacy, describing each in detail. This book seems very disorganized and difficult to follow. That’s between jabs at groups he doesn’t care for. I’d bet a months pay I can tell you how the author votes. You really shouldn’t be able to determine that in a book on this topic. For a book critiquing Bias. The author shows his Bias.
February 12, 2023
You will think your way all through this book. The author by stating: “It’s not what you know that is wrong, but what you believe. This is because you can only know what is true, you can never know what is false—but you can believe anything.” He believes the true fracture in society is between the debased and based. Here are just a few topics the author takes head on:
“Science cannot answer every question put to it; not now, and not eventually, either. It is not always right to correct a wrong. Women cannot do whatever they like with their own bodies. Men neither. There is no right or wrong side of history. Science is no more self-correcting than any other human endeavor. There is no wisdom in crowds. The source of a proposition has no bearing on the truth of that proposition, even if the proposition is spoken by a “Nazi.” There are differences between the races, and indeed all human groups. A consensus among elite academics does not prove the belief of the elite academics is true. That you are offended is irrelevant to whether a proposition is true or false. Hypocrites are sometimes the best judges. If animals have rights, they have responsibilities, too. Equality is false and undesirable. Diversity is our weakness. Equity is destructive.”
If you are on the political left, you won’t like this book. If you’re on the right, you will like it more. Either way, you’ll have to think, which is the main benefit of this book. It’s far too long though, which so many fallacies portrayed I lost count. It’s also full of typographical and grammar errors, and I have a high tolerance for typos, just not this many. I wish it would have been about 70% shorter. It probably deserved 2.5 stars, but I can’t really recommend it except for those who love logic and confronting all of our very human fallacies.
“Science cannot answer every question put to it; not now, and not eventually, either. It is not always right to correct a wrong. Women cannot do whatever they like with their own bodies. Men neither. There is no right or wrong side of history. Science is no more self-correcting than any other human endeavor. There is no wisdom in crowds. The source of a proposition has no bearing on the truth of that proposition, even if the proposition is spoken by a “Nazi.” There are differences between the races, and indeed all human groups. A consensus among elite academics does not prove the belief of the elite academics is true. That you are offended is irrelevant to whether a proposition is true or false. Hypocrites are sometimes the best judges. If animals have rights, they have responsibilities, too. Equality is false and undesirable. Diversity is our weakness. Equity is destructive.”
If you are on the political left, you won’t like this book. If you’re on the right, you will like it more. Either way, you’ll have to think, which is the main benefit of this book. It’s far too long though, which so many fallacies portrayed I lost count. It’s also full of typographical and grammar errors, and I have a high tolerance for typos, just not this many. I wish it would have been about 70% shorter. It probably deserved 2.5 stars, but I can’t really recommend it except for those who love logic and confronting all of our very human fallacies.
December 23, 2022
This book was written very creatively and humorously. I enjoyed it greatly. William Briggs brought out logical fallacies that we all can fall into, and demonstrated how we can engage in logical arguments without resorting to personal attacks and emotional outbursts. This is sorely lacking in this Epoch of time.
I would have given this book 5 stars, but it was poorly edited. I couldn’t believe the amount of grammatical errors! I found it a bit distracting.
I would have given this book 5 stars, but it was poorly edited. I couldn’t believe the amount of grammatical errors! I found it a bit distracting.
July 31, 2022
Great positions. Needs an editor.
Argument seems to be a global pastime as of late. Briggs explains with humor and wit many of the Fallacies commonly used. He uses brief vignettes to give examples of each so that the reader can identify them and counter. There is a very good “There is a God” argument within.
Argument seems to be a global pastime as of late. Briggs explains with humor and wit many of the Fallacies commonly used. He uses brief vignettes to give examples of each so that the reader can identify them and counter. There is a very good “There is a God” argument within.
February 16, 2022
Very interesting and engaging.
The material covered in this book was very engaging and thought provoking. I was confused frequently but always entertained. Some of the religious material clearly left me behind, but was still highly informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
The material covered in this book was very engaging and thought provoking. I was confused frequently but always entertained. Some of the religious material clearly left me behind, but was still highly informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
June 12, 2023
Belief
Bind bending
It is not about what you believe. It's about why it is that what you believe is wrong.
Take the authors advice and start with the appendix (read it twice!)
It is seriously in need of a good editor: many typos,missing words,or autocorrect errors.
Bind bending
It is not about what you believe. It's about why it is that what you believe is wrong.
Take the authors advice and start with the appendix (read it twice!)
It is seriously in need of a good editor: many typos,missing words,or autocorrect errors.
May 30, 2022
Good Read
The author wrote a very entertaining book that walks the reader through the many errors in thinking that are present today.
The author wrote a very entertaining book that walks the reader through the many errors in thinking that are present today.
November 24, 2025
Thought-provoking and highly entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews