Appeal to censorship

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An appeal to censorship occurs when dissenting ideas are removed or silenced in order to make a statement appear unanswered, and thus more probably true. The idea comes down to "I'm correct because nobody else disagrees ~~(because I removed all dissent)~~". Whether or not this is an acceptable practice depends entirely on the mission of the website in question and the way in which the comments are presented. The deletion of constructive and on-topic comments is particularly disingenuous when the site in question claims to value freedom of speech.

Deletion of dissenting views may give the original article a false sense of validity, in that to the casual user, it appears that no one has been able to offer valid criticism. It's a bit like a Congress voting on a bill and locking the doors to prevent dissenters from voting against it, or Pride's Purge in which dissidents were arrested by soldiers if they attempted to enter the House of Commons.

Form[edit]

I made statement P!
~~P is wrong because it's an appeal to authority.~~
Nobody has disagreed!
~~Hey! Stop deleting my posts!~~
P is true!

Wikis[edit]

Wikis provide paper trails (also known as "histories", or here on RationalWiki, the "fossil record") through which edits and deletions are recorded and visible to users, with the possibility of restoring previously deleted content. Most wiki packages allow a comment to be written to explain the reasoning behind a deletion,^[1] but use of this is governed by policies decided on a site-by-site basis.^[2] Also, on conservative wikis such as Conservapedia, even when an edit summary box is offered, editors often ignore its presence rather than admit to editing out wrong thought. Techniques can be used to make users and their comments vanish from the history of the wiki. This practice is known as deep burning. This revisionism is particularly useful when the simple deletion of a comment would leave behind the impression that a comment was deleted for being inconveniently correct.

Forums and blogs[edit]

Forums and blogs do not normally provide the detailed history visible in wikis and there are too many software packages to describe them all. Blogs and forums are governed by a mixture of technical features and site-by-site policy.^[3] In most cases, editing of user-posted comments would be flagged as having been modified by an administrator, the original content being hidden from view. Blog/forum software packages tend to allow for the deletion of entire posts, with some leaving behind a note stating that the post was removed by an administrator. In some blogs, the posting of comments must be vetted by an administrator before being allowed to appear on the site, the refusal of which may effectively be disagreement by deletion. In other cases a blog owner may simply block comments from being made, either by default, or if they feel that their views are going to be challenged. This is not inherently dishonest, since the blog owner may not wish to discuss their work, and it might actually be a good idea to do this if one anticipates that the majority of comments are likely to be inane, profane, or otherwise not worth anybody's time to read; for example, atheism-oriented sites could forbid proselytizing and arguments consisting entirely of random quotes from scripture.^{[note 1]}

Deleted comments on such websites may be retrieved from internet archiving services (such as https://web.archive.org/), provided they were previously published at some point and crawled into the archive.

References[edit]

↑ A deletion on RationalWiki This is an example of a RationalWiki deletion in which comments were provided to explain the action. Note as well that a historical record is preserved, and the deletion reversed.
↑ RationalWiki has an Etiquette article in which editors are instructed to follow specific guidelines when removing edits. Well-intentioned edits are afforded more protection than obvious vandalism, the former requiring editors to explain their actions in greater detail.
↑ In Ray Comfort's blog, previously rather oddly named Atheist Central, he states that the following will lead to deletion: "Cuss words (mild or abbrev.), blasphemy, URLs, incivility, or failure to give the name 'God' or 'Jesus' capitals, will be deleted."

Notes[edit]

↑ Quotes from scripture carry little weight among those who place holy books in the same category as Lord of The Rings, unless of course the discussion is centered on those books and associated religious positions.

[1] A deletion on RationalWiki This is an example of a RationalWiki deletion in which comments were provided to explain the action. Note as well that a historical record is preserved, and the deletion reversed.

[2] RationalWiki has an Etiquette article in which editors are instructed to follow specific guidelines when removing edits. Well-intentioned edits are afforded more protection than obvious vandalism, the former requiring editors to explain their actions in greater detail.

[3] In Ray Comfort's blog, previously rather oddly named Atheist Central, he states that the following will lead to deletion: "Cuss words (mild or abbrev.), blasphemy, URLs, incivility, or failure to give the name 'God' or 'Jesus' capitals, will be deleted."

[4] Quotes from scripture carry little weight among those who place holy books in the same category as Lord of The Rings, unless of course the discussion is centered on those books and associated religious positions.

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v - t - e Articles about logical fallacies
Informal fallacies:			Appeal to tradition • Appeal to novelty • Appeal to nature • Argument from morality • Argumentum ad martyrdom • Big words • Certum est quia impossibile est • Morton's fork • Friend argument • Exception that proves the rule • Extended analogy • Hindsight bias • Race card • Moralistic fallacy • Release the data • Gish Gallop • Terrorism-baiting • Uncertainty tactic • Greece-baiting • Ham Hightail • Red-baiting • Gore's Law • Nazi analogies • Mistaking the map for the territory • Red herring • Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur • Presentism • Sunk cost • Two wrongs make a right • Flying carpet fallacy • My enemy's enemy • Appeal to ancient wisdom • Danth's Law • Argumentum ad lunam • Balance fallacy • Golden hammer • Loaded question • Escape to the future • Word magic • Spider-Man fallacy • Sanctioning the devil • Appeal to mystery • Informal fallacy • Common sense • Post-designation • Hyperbole • Relativist fallacy • Due diligence • Straw man • Good old days • Appeal to probability • Infinite regress • Circular reasoning • Media was wrong before • Is–ought problem • Ad iram • Just asking questions • Pink-baiting • Appeal to faith • Appeal to fear • Appeal to bias • Appeal to confidence • Appeal to consequences • Appeal to emotion • Appeal to flattery • Appeal to gravity • Appeal to hate • Argument from omniscience • Argument from silence • Argumentum ad baculum • Argumentum ad fastidium • Association fallacy • Broken window fallacy • Category mistake • Confounding factor • Counterfactual fallacy • Courtier's Reply • Damning with faint praise • Definitional fallacies • Equivocation • Fallacy of accent • Fallacy of accident • Fallacy of amphiboly • Gambler's fallacy • Imprecision fallacy • Moving the goalposts • Nirvana fallacy • Overprecision • Pathos gambit • Pragmatic fallacy • Quote mining • Argumentum ad sarcina inserta • Science doesn't know everything • Slothful induction • Spotlight fallacy • Style over substance • Toupee fallacy • Genuine but insignificant cause • Argument from incredulity • Appeal to age • Argumentum ad nauseam • Phantom distinction • Appeal to common sense • Argumentum ad hysteria • Omnipotence paradox • Argument from etymology • Appeal to trauma • Countless counterfeits fallacy •
	Ad hoc:		No True Scotsman • Moving the goalposts • Escape hatch • Handwave • Special pleading • Slothful induction • Nirvana fallacy • God of the gaps • PIDOOMA • Ad hoc • Tone argument •
	Arguments from ignorance:		Science doesn't know everything • Argument from incredulity • Argument from silence • Toupee fallacy • Science was wrong before • Holmesian fallacy • Argument from omniscience • Willful ignorance • Argument from ignorance •
	Causation fallacies:		Post hoc, ergo propter hoc • Correlation does not imply causation • Wrong direction • Counterfactual fallacy • Regression fallacy • Gambler's fallacy • Denying the antecedent • Genuine but insignificant cause •
	Circular reasoning:		Infinite regress • Argument by assertion • Argumentum ad dictionarium • Appeal to faith • Circular reasoning • Self-refuting idea •
	Emotional appeals:		Appeal to fear • Appeal to emotion • Appeal to confidence • Deepity • Argumentum ad baculum • Appeal to shame • Appeal to flattery • Tone argument • Appeal to money • Argumentum ad fastidium • Appeal to gravity • Appeal to consequences • Loaded language • Style over substance • Appeal to pity • Appeal to hate • Pathos gambit • Shaming • Degenerate • Abomination •
	Fallacies of ambiguity:		Fallacy of accent • Equivocation • Fallacy of amphiboly • Quote mining • Fallacy of ambiguity • Moral equivalence • Scope fallacy • Suppressed correlative • Not as bad as • Etymology • Continuum fallacy • Wronger than wrong • Definitional fallacies • Code word • Phantom distinction •
Formal fallacies:			Confusion of the inverse • Denying the antecedent • Non sequitur • Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise • Not even wrong • Chewbacca Defense • Affirming a disjunct • Illicit process • Four-term fallacy • Negative conclusion from affirmative premises • Fallacy fallacy • Substituting explanation for premise • Enthymeme • Syllogism • Formal fallacy • Existential assumption • Masked man fallacy • Self-refuting idea • Argument by gibberish • One single proof • Affirming the consequent • False dilemma • Conjunction fallacy •
Fallacious arguments:			Bumblebee argument • Fatwa envy • Gotcha argument • Hoyle's fallacy • Intuition pump • Logic and Creation • Not Circular Reasoning • Peanut butter argument • Great Beethoven fallacy • Fallacy of unique founding conditions • Evil is the absence of God • Argument from first cause • How do you know? Were you there? • Argument from design • Argument from beauty • Appeal to nature • Solferino fallacy • Religious scientists • Nothing to hide • Argument from fine tuning • Creep shaming • "I used to be an atheist" • Atheism as a religion • Argumentum ad populum • Argument from morality • Anti-environmentalism • Appeal to bias • Apophasis • Argumentum ad nauseam • Argumentum ad sarcina inserta • Blaming the victim • Bait-and-switch • Danth's Law • Chewbacca Defense • Canard • DARVO • Demonization • Escape hatch • Friend argument • Everyone is racist • Gish Gallop • Greece-baiting • Gore's Law • Ham Hightail • Just asking questions • Leading question • Loaded language • Linking to authority • Loaded question • Lying by omission • Motte and bailey • Nazi analogies • Moving the goalposts • One single proof • Pink-baiting • One-way hash argument • Pathos gambit • Quote mining • Poisoning the well • Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur • Race card • Red-baiting • Red herring • Release the data • Science was wrong before • Shill gambit • Straw man • Silent Majority • Uncertainty tactic • Style over substance • Terrorism-baiting • Weasel word • What's the harm (logical fallacy) • Whataboutism • Bullshit • Logical fallacy • Banana argument • Scapegoat • How come there are still monkeys? • Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white • Ontological argument • Omnipotence paradox • Presuppositionalism • Just a joke • Countless counterfeits fallacy •
Conditional fallacies:			Slippery slope • What's the harm (logical fallacy) • Special pleading • Conditional fallacy • On the spot fallacy • Appeal to the minority • Argumentum ad populum • Galileo gambit • Professor of nothing •
	Genetic fallacies:		Genetic fallacy •
		Appeals to authority:	Ipse dixit • Appeal to confidence • Argumentum ad populum • Argument from authority • Linking to authority • Silent Majority • Invincible authority • Appeal to celebrity • Ultracrepidarianism • Appeal to the minority • Galileo gambit • Appeal to identity • Weasel word • Professor of nothing • Euthyphro dilemma • Divine command theory •
		Ad hominem:	Ad iram • Argumentum ad cellarium • Bulverism • Poisoning the well • Blaming the victim • Tu quoque • Whataboutism • Nutpicking • Jonanism • Demonization • Shill gambit • Appeal to bias • Fallacy of opposition • Association fallacy • Damning with faint praise • Pathos gambit • Appeal to identity • Argumentum ad hominem • Nazi analogies • Not an argument • Nothing to hide • Scapegoat • 地下室论证 •
	Imprecision fallacies:		Apex fallacy • Overprecision • Cherry picking • Overgeneralization • Texas sharpshooter fallacy • False analogy • Appeal to fiction • Spotlight fallacy • Pragmatic fallacy • Selection bias • Anecdotal evidence • Category mistake • Nutpicking • Imprecision fallacy • Confounding factor • Fallacy of accident • Neyman's bias •
Valid logical methods:			Rapoport's Rules • Negative evidence • Reductio ad absurdum •
Fallacy collections:			SeekFind • Nizkor Project • Fallacy Files • Your Logical Fallacy Is • Logically Fallacious •

Appeal to censorship

Contents

Form[edit]

Wikis[edit]

Forums and blogs[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

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