No. 23 Attack Fallacies
Poisoning the Well
In Turkish: Dolduruşa Getirme Safsatası
I was wrong before I opened my mouth. You poisoned the well in advance.
Here comes Dursun. He knows nothing about watermelons; whatever he says, do the opposite.
That one’s unripe, you can hear it.
Fadime told me you don’t know. If you say unripe, it’s ripe!
What is it?
Turning the audience against someone before they speak: “now he’s going to lie to you”, “she always exaggerates”. Whatever is said, nobody drinks from a well already poisoned.
The pattern
- A is about to say X.
- But A is such-and-such (a liar, an exaggerator, self-interested).
- Therefore ignore whatever A says.
Why it fails
This is the ad hominem done in advance. The difference is timing: the attack comes before the claim and condemns it unheard. Even the victim’s defence becomes part of the poison: object and you get “see, just like I said”. Once a well is poisoned, clean water looks poisoned too.
How to spot it
- The warning about the person comes before the person speaks.
- The phrase “whatever they say”: the content is dismissed before it’s heard.
- When the other side defends itself, that counts as proof too.
What to say
Make the poison visible: “The verdict came before I said a word. Listen first, then decide.” Don’t start defending yourself; state the claim short and calm, and give the evidence. Clean water shows its taste eventually.
When it’s not a fallacy
Recalling a source’s record in advance is sometimes necessary: “this seller cheated us last year, let’s be careful.” That doesn’t stop the listening; it asks for careful listening. The fallacy is replacing the record with an adjective and shutting the listening down entirely.
Examples
- WorkBefore the meeting: “Don’t listen to accounting’s presentation, it’s always doom.” The presentation was over before it started.
- Family“Whatever your sister says, it’s jealousy.” The sister said “drive slowly”; that counted as jealousy.
- Social media“Whatever gets written about this, the writers were paid.” The evidence was refuted before it was shown.
- Football“This pundit hates us; whatever he says, the opposite is true.” He said the keeper was good; so the keeper was bad.