The "No True Leftist" Fallacy

[00:00:00]A few years ago, I had the idea to make a new series of YouTube videos where I would discuss logical fallacies and I made one about ad homonym. Um, and then I realized I hated it and I never wanted to do that again. It wasn't fun to make and I didn't want to encourage debate perverts who think that yelling logical fallacies automatically wins arguments or that it's necessary or even worth it to win arguments in everyday life. But here I am all these years later inspired to make another logical fallacy video.

[00:00:37]And it's all thanks to an absolute metric ton of people who rushed to my video about leftists supporting Graham Platner to tell me that I was wrong because the people mentioned in my video were not in fact leftists. Sam Cedar and Emma Vigland of Majority Report, Kyle Kolinsky of Secular Talk, Jank Huger of The Young Turks, Medie Hassan of Zeteo, and Ryan Grim of Breaking Points are apparently all libs at best. QED. This is essentially an appeal to purity or more commonly known as the no true Scotsman fallacy thanks to philosopher Anthony Flu who described an argument in which someone asserts that no Scotsman put sugar on their porridge. When their opponent says, "Well, I'm a Scotsman and I put sugar on my porridge." The response is, "Ah, then you aren't a true Scotsman. No true Scotsman put sugar in their porridge.

[00:01:40]This is not a formal logical fallacy in which an argument is invalid because of its faulty structure. It's an informal fallacy because the problem lies in the premise itself. It's a form of begging the question or circular reasoning. I saw it a lot back in the days when there was an active skeptics community. They love to argue over whether or not someone could be a skeptic if, for instance, they believed in a god. It was pretty common. Or Bigfoot or psychic powers or whatnot. And eventually they were forced to conclude that a true skeptic doesn't believe in anything at all, not even themselves. Isn't that sad? The thing I find interesting about the no true Scotsman fallacy is that it's not wrong, per se, to use it.

[00:02:30]You're allowed to define categories in any way you want. That's just like your opinion. If someone came to me and said that they believe in God and Bigfoot and psychic powers, I really wouldn't consider them a skeptic. Even if they considered themselves a skeptic, we each have our opinion. If someone born and raised in Ohio spent a holiday weekend in Aberdine, I wouldn't necessarily consider them a Scotsman, even if they themselves do consider themselves a Scotsman. Opinions. So, when I point to the No True Scotsman Wikipedia page in response to people telling me that no leftists ever supported Graham Platner, I'm not saying they're wrong. This guy, for instance, went above and beyond insisting that not only did no leftist ever support Graham Platner, but no leftist has ever supported or even voted for any Democrat ever. I think most of us can agree that that's unhinged. I mean, generally leftist means someone on the left, but most Americans understand it to mean people who are further left, more progressive than the Democratic party. And many of us who are further left than the Democratic party see strategic value in voting for certain candidates. But that doesn't mean that this guy is wrong. He just defines leftist in a way that excludes well pretty much every American who calls themselves a leftist. And he's not alone. I've received many sneering comments from people outside of the US who insist that there is no left in this country at all. Okay, cool. We have differing definitions of what those words mean. That's fine. Goodbye. Enjoy your life. So, if it isn't necessarily wrong to know true Scotsman, why do I bother pointing it out in the first place? Honestly, with that guy on Blue Sky, I replied before I noticed he was completely bonkers. But I do think it's helpful for the more normal people to understand why they shouldn't do it because it's a pointless nonsequittor at best and a potentially damaging dismissal at worst. Before I go any further, let me just say that I do not have any issue with people policing who belongs in their movement or their community. The people I called out in the previous video were so misogynistic that they mocked and belittled a victim of abuse just because she's Republican.

[00:05:02]And that is absolutely not a progressive ideal. And it's perfectly fine to tell them that, to stop listening to them because they simply are not leftist enough for you to, you know, you can roll your eyes when they continue to identify as being in the progressive left. But it is not helpful for you to tell me that these people are not leftists as though it is a fact and not your opinion. First of all, because it's extremely annoying. Obviously, I already know that they are not being good progressive allies. You don't need to tell me. I even literally said supposedly progressive leftist when referring to these people. But I know watching and understanding a video before commenting is not for most people. It's fine. Uh and obviously while you are allowed to have your opinion on who is and isn't a leftist, you do not need to be a smug about it, pretending that you are announcing a fact instead of an opinion.

[00:06:07]The mistake you're making here is not a single one of these people are leftists.

[00:06:11]Those are liberals. Real leftists have been calling Platner out for the four tours in Blackwater. Anti-imperialism comes first. Man, if only they had said true instead of real, that would have been a perfect comment. None of the people you mentioned are leftists. The Young Turks and Hassan are not leftists. Stop calling Dems leftists.

[00:06:31]They are not leftists and they never will be. Hassan has truly done something remarkable in that I have never made a video about him. I did not mention his name at all in that video, but his haters just cannot stop themselves. It's It's actually impressive. What is a leftist to you?

[00:06:48]Having ever worked for the worst, most violent imperialist force currently operating automatically disqualifies you from being a leftist. That's why no one trusts American leftists. That usually just means I want healthcare and treats like Europeans who are also imperialists. I guess this person's referring to Graham Platner, who I never actually called a leftist, so they're extremely confused. Moving on. My only complaint with this video is hearing all those names being referred to as leftists. Nah, they might be further left than the average liberal. That's the definition, but one can find better examples of leftism. Yeah, I wasn't trying to find great examples of leftism. That's not what the video was about. It was about people who are widely considered leftists, who identify as leftists, who are not demonstrating leftist ideals. That was the whole point. So, yeah, it's annoying to be flooded with comments like that. But more than that, as I said, it's damaging. These people have misdirected the focus from criticizing leftists for promoting an abusive wararmonger to criticizing me for not using their own personal definition of who counts as a leftist. It's a convenient distraction and it lets all of those people I was criticizing off the hook. Of course, they adopted misogynistic tactics. What do you expect of libs? Why are you even paying attention to them? Why expect them to be better? And the worst thing that the no true leftist fallacy does is it spreads the completely false idea that the left does not have a problem with topics like misogyny and racism and homophobia and thus we don't need to discuss them. I'm sorry to tell you this, but we do.

[00:08:37]Yes, even outside of the United States, these bigotries are baked into all of us, and we don't get to pretend as though we've transcended them because we've categorized ourselves into an identity that rejects those bigotries.

[00:08:53]Doing so results in exactly what happened with Graham Platner. Like it or not, a lot of people consider the Majority Report to be progressive, as they themselves describe the show. A lot of people think that because progressive ideals reject misogyny, progressives cannot be misogynist. Therefore, it logically follows when the progressive hosts of the majority report demean a woman who says Graham Platner abused her, that cannot be misogyny. Therefore, they must be correct and the woman must be lying. See, if no true leftist can be racist and I consider politician X to be a leftist, then I will be more likely uh to believe them over a minority who says that they called them a slur. If no true leftist would support child abuse and I consider public intellectual Y to be a leftist, then I will be less likely to believe that he participated in activities with a notorious pedophile.

[00:09:56]It benefits no one to pretend that such a large and diverse group is 100% pure.

[00:10:02]And it ultimately hurts those who will be victimized by some individuals within that group. By all means, push out those people who cause harm, but stop acting like bad actors are some other community's problem. Stop acting like bigotry and greed and dishonesty is someone else's problem. They're our problems and we need to deal with them.

[00:10:24]And in my opinion, no true leftist would disagree with me.

[00:10:35]Hey everybody, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like. If you loved the video, please subscribe. And if you think the world could use more videos like this and you happen to have a few bucks laying around, head to patreon.com/rebecca and join an awesome community of nerds like the people whose names you see on [music] the screen right now. Thanks.

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