Red herring

What it is

Introduces an irrelevant topic to divert attention from the issue under discussion. The new topic may be interesting, even true, but it does not bear on the original question.

Related

• Straw man fallacy
  Both avoid the actual position: a straw man replaces it with a weaker version, a red herring replaces the topic.
• Whataboutism fallacy
  Whataboutism is a red herring in a specific shape: a different wrong offered to change the subject.
• Appeal to pity fallacy
  Pity and other emotions are common red herrings: they pull attention from the merits to the person or story.
• Tone policing fallacy
  Complaints about tone change the subject from the substance to the style.
• Irrelevant conclusion fallacy
  A red herring distracts from the point, while an irrelevant conclusion proves a different point altogether; both miss the issue.

References

• Wikipedia: Red herring en.wikipedia.org
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

More in “Dodging or distorting the argument”