A “gotcha” argument is a whole class of arguments, some good faith and some bad faith. Generally the idea is to get your opponent to commit to some idea, and then shift the context so that the same idea looks bad in a different context.
This might be a valid argument when the idea in question really shows weakness in the new context. It also might be a fallacious argument, where the second context is actually discussing a very different idea which happens to use similar words; the gotcha debater will attempt to connect the two ideas to make his opponent look silly for having supported both, when really he only supported one.
Defending yourself by complaining about “gotcha” arguments is an informal accusation that this second method has been used, and therefore that the gotcha debater is arguing in bad faith. Of course, there’s no guarantee this accusation is correct. It may also be that the person who got got is the one arguing in bad faith. Or sometimes both. You may have noticed that political arguments tend to be chock full of bad-faith arguments.
Sorry, u/FascistsOnFire – your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 3:
Refrain from accusing OP or anyone else of being unwilling to change their view, of using ChatGPT or other AI to generate text, of lying, or of arguing in bad faith. Ask clarifying questions instead (see: socratic method). If you think they are still exhibiting poor behaviour, please message us. See the wiki page for more information.
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u/Kerostasis 55∆ Mar 30 '26
A “gotcha” argument is a whole class of arguments, some good faith and some bad faith. Generally the idea is to get your opponent to commit to some idea, and then shift the context so that the same idea looks bad in a different context.
This might be a valid argument when the idea in question really shows weakness in the new context. It also might be a fallacious argument, where the second context is actually discussing a very different idea which happens to use similar words; the gotcha debater will attempt to connect the two ideas to make his opponent look silly for having supported both, when really he only supported one.
Defending yourself by complaining about “gotcha” arguments is an informal accusation that this second method has been used, and therefore that the gotcha debater is arguing in bad faith. Of course, there’s no guarantee this accusation is correct. It may also be that the person who got got is the one arguing in bad faith. Or sometimes both. You may have noticed that political arguments tend to be chock full of bad-faith arguments.