In any situation, focusing on Red Herrings is a deadly distraction.įollow Relative Joy on WordPress. It is like medical science where instead on focusing what is the real evidence, we are distracted with the diagnosis because there were too much tests that gave ambiguous results. In this highly digital age of technology, social media is used to sow confusion and distract us from what is true. It is a fallacy that an argument is correct but does not address the subject being discussed. Meaning something irrelevant that distracts you from something important a clue meant to mislead you Literal meaning: A small, smoked silvery fish, which is. In medical science, this ends up with health care providers working up patients with more unnecessary tests, increasing hospitalization days, instituting unnecessary treatments, placing them at higher risks of complications, and shifting the burden of cost to an insurmountable amount. Confusion results in a lack of focus on what the real problem is. This makes the masses confused with the real current pressing and potential issues surrounding a nation. The real situation of an economy or justice or national security of any country can be fended off through fake news and bad policies and decisions by creating background noise and news. Politics is an example of how to use distractions in order to bring to fore an agenda. Red herrings, while taught in medical science, are seen in contemporary society. Whatever the origins are, red herring is something that misleads or distracts us from a relevant or important issue. So for example, if you are in a discussion and you say that I believe woman get lighter sentences than men do for the same crime because most judges are male. Red Herring: This is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim. The modern meaning of “red herring” as a false trail, was thought to be popularized by English journalist William Cobbett. Answer (1 of 7): A red herring is a distraction. Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. The idiom “red herring” was thought to have emanated from using this fish’s smell to train dogs to track scents. I talk about red herrings today to emphasize that there will always be misleading clues that will make one make the wrong conclusion. The final diagnosis in this case was acute leukemia. This patient was seen by two different doctors in the 2 weeks interval. Many diseases will present with a low white count and low platelet. The red herring is the neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. Many will be tempted to make a diagnosis of dengue. A complete blood count with platelet shows a white count of 3,000 (90% lymphocytes) and a platelet of 25,000. He tests negative in routine dengue test kits except for IgG dengue. Let’s take the case of a 4 year-old patient with 14 days fever and macular rashes is seen at your clinic. Red herrings are clues that are intended to be distracting or misleading. Whenever I make teaching rounds with my medical students, I always tell them to look out for a “red herring”.
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