We don’t often hear such formal arguments in ordinary life, but anyone who follows politics or media is guaranteed to encounter informal fallacies regularly. These arguments often succeed in distracting the listener from the relevant aspects of an argument. An ad hominem fallacy, for example, attacks the character or authority of the person making an argument rather than the argument itself. An appeal to consequences distracts from the validity of an argument and focuses on whether the implications of that argument are desirable or not.
