The reasoning has to be something like “these people are (implicitly) blaming some group G for an alleged problem P. If I can demonstrate that these people are wrong to blame group G, then I’ve demonstrated that they’re Wrong. As Wrongness is a transitive property, therefore we can be sure that problem P isn’t real (???) and we no longer need to be worried about P”
I suspect the reasoning is something like: “No one actually cares about the problem P per se, only as a tool to attack someone. By explaining why the group G should not be blamed for P, we have addressed the true point.”
Frankly, some people are like this. I have a few examples in mind, all of them political, when people stopped caring about problem P after it was shown that it was caused by someone other than their hated outgroup G.
I’m most sympathetic to (both sides of this) if the problem is clearly symbolic in nature, and the symbolism is much more relevant for one alleged group of perpetrators than another. For example if I learned an American politician pissed on the US flag I’d consider that quite damning, but it’s not very relevant if instead it was some random teenagers.
I avoided political examples in the post, but I also think this fallacy is especially prominent in political discussions.
I suspect the reasoning is something like: “No one actually cares about the problem P per se, only as a tool to attack someone. By explaining why the group G should not be blamed for P, we have addressed the true point.”
Frankly, some people are like this. I have a few examples in mind, all of them political, when people stopped caring about problem P after it was shown that it was caused by someone other than their hated outgroup G.
I’m most sympathetic to (both sides of this) if the problem is clearly symbolic in nature, and the symbolism is much more relevant for one alleged group of perpetrators than another. For example if I learned an American politician pissed on the US flag I’d consider that quite damning, but it’s not very relevant if instead it was some random teenagers.
I avoided political examples in the post, but I also think this fallacy is especially prominent in political discussions.