Debating tactics and how to respond

[Orba]

Hi. I need help with certain debating tactics.

1. Person A owes person B money. Person B asks A, "are you going to pay me back the money you owe me? if yes, when?" Person A says, " i will pay you back...eventually". What is person A's tactic called?

2. Someone argues that mr. Joe smith is man. Mr. Joe Smith might rape women. Therefore, Mr. Joe Smith ought to have his freedoms curtailed. What is this tactic called and how to respond to this?

[BobCox2]

See Logical fallacies

• Ad baculum
• Ad hominem
• Affirming the consequent
• Appeal to authority
• Appeal to fear
• Appeal to pity
• Appeal to tradition
• Appeal to probability
• Appeal to the majority
• Argument from ignorance
• Begging the question
• Biased sample
• Correlation implies causation
• Equivocation
• Hasty generalization
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc
• Straw man

For a list of types of formal and informal fallacy, as well as examples of fallacious arguments, see Fallacy. For a concise list of "appeal to" fallacies, see Appeal (disambiguation).

Your 2 are "but The Horse might sing". in the first case I think. It's a old AESOP'S tale.

and I'm not touching the second one. but it might be one of the above.

[stillman]

1 I would call "indefinite stalling" or maybe "kicking the can down the road". Look them both up.

2 sounds like "guilty until proven innocent." Also "Appeal to probability" on Bob's list above is right on the money. To quote wiki:

A fallacious appeal to possibility:
Something can go wrong (premise).Therefore, something will go wrong (invalid conclusion).
How to counter it? Well, point out the fallacy, and, if gender is part of their argument, maybe go with a discrimination claim?

Remember two things: that clarity is key, so be sure to define the terms you use. And, none of us are really free in the current system (oh, but that is another topic!).

[BobCox2]

1 I would call "indefinite stalling" or maybe "kicking the can down the road". Look them both up.

2 sounds like "guilty until proven innocent." Also "Appeal to probability" on Bob's list above is right on the money. To quote wiki:

A fallacious appeal to possibility:
Something can go wrong (premise).Therefore, something will go wrong (invalid conclusion).
How to counter it? Well, point out the fallacy, and, if gender is part of their argument, maybe go with a discrimination claim?

Remember two things: that clarity is key, so be sure to define the terms you use. And, none of us are really free in the current system (oh, but that is another topic!).

also kind of looks like Affirming the consequent