Missing the Point Fallacy Examples in Media, Real Life, Politics, News & Ads

Missing the Point Fallacy

Missing the Point Fallacy Definition

The missing-the-point fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone fails to address or refute an argument, instead of attacking irrelevant aspects of the opponent’s position. It is a logical fallacy in which someone fails to address the issue at hand and instead attacks an irrelevant or less important aspect of it.

This type of reasoning can be used as a form of distraction, persuasion, or obfuscation by confusing people with irrelevancies that may not have any relevance to the matter at hand.

For example, if I am trying to convince you that we should buy some apples from this stand on the corner and you tell me they are too expensive, I might try to persuade you by telling you that these apples are much better than ones from our local grocery store because they taste better and are fresher than those found there – even though my original point was about the price!

Missing the Point Fallacy Examples

Missing the Point example in Philosophy

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in Philosophy:

An example of this would be if you were debating about whether or not it was wrong to eat meat and your opponent focused on how much money you spend on clothes.

This type of attack doesn’t actually disprove anything in your original argument because there are many reasons why people may choose to buy expensive clothes

Missing the Point Fallacy Real-Life Examples

Missing the Point Fallacy in Real Life:

• For example, if someone says “I’m hungry” and you say “no you’re not”, then you’ve missed the point. You might be correct in saying that they aren’t hungry, but it’s also possible that they were just making a statement about their hunger level.
• Pointing out that someone is wrong in an argument, but not addressing the original point of the argument
• Arguing with a person about their opinion, rather than defending your own opinion
•  Attempting to change someone’s mind by using facts and statistics without considering what they believe

Missing the Point Fallacy Examples in Media

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in Media: 

The media often misses the point of an issue, such as when they focus on a celebrity’s clothes instead of their charitable work.

This is also called “missing the forest for the trees” or “missing the big picture”

Missing the point fallacy can be seen in many other areas, such as when people argue about grammar while ignoring content

Missing the Point Fallacy Examples in Advertising

Missing the Point Fallacy in Advertising:

• The slogan “The ultimate driving machine” is a good example of missing the point fallacy in advertising because it implies that BMW cars are better than other cars.
• Another example is when Nike says, “Just do it,” which could be interpreted as telling people to not think about their actions and just go ahead with them

Missing the Point Fallacy in Politics

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in Politics:

The missing-the-point fallacy is when someone takes a statement out of context and interprets it in a way that is different from what was intended.

For example, if you say “I’m going to eat an apple” but someone hears “I am going to eat apples,” they may think you are planning on eating more than one apple.

If this person then tells their friends about your plan to eat multiple apples, they might be accused of missing the point.

Missing the Point Fallacy examples in Movies

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in Movies:

In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption“, Andy Dufresne is wrongly accused of murdering his wife and her lover, despite there being no evidence.

The prosecution’s case rests on a letter that was supposedly written by Andy to his wife confessing to the crime, but it turns out that he never wrote this letter.

This is an example of missing the point fallacy because even though there was no evidence against him, he still served two life sentences in prison for crimes he did not commit.

Missing the Point Fallacy Examples in Literature

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in Literature:

The protagonist of the story is a woman who has just been released from prison, and she is looking for her daughter.

She meets a man on the street, and he tells her that her daughter died in an accident while trying to find her mother.

The woman is devastated by this news, but then she realizes that it could not have happened because she was never out of prison at the time of the accident

Missing the Point Fallacy Examples in News

Examples of Missing the Point Fallacy in News:

The article discusses a study that found that people who are more educated are less likely to believe in God. What the article failed to mention is that the study was conducted on college students, not adults of all ages.

This omission makes it seem as if there is no correlation between education and belief in God.

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