Moving the fulcrum

Moving the fulcrum is a rhetorical deception in which one party takes up an extreme position (which they do not actually hold) in order to convince a third party of the validity of their actual position. It generally depends upon the fallacy of moderation in order to succeed.

Definition

Say you have two people, A and B. A holds position P_a, B holds position P_b.

• They are both trying to convince a third party, who is helping them resolve their dispute, of the validity of their positions.
• A is honest, and directly argues the merits of P_a.
• B, however, is less so, and instead of arguing P_b argues for an extreme position P_c, wherein a seemingly-reasonable "middle ground" between P_a and P_c would be approximately P_b.
• The third party agrees that "there are two sides to every story" and "where there's smoke there's fire", and suggests that both parties be reasonable and settle on position P_b.

Obviously this sort of argument wouldn't work if the facts were clear-cut; it's mainly useful in situations where the best answer is perceived to be a matter of opinion or judgment (whether or not this is actually true).

Links

• In the News
  • 2005-12-22 Banter over Bias Shields the Real Problem of the Media by Timothy Karr
• Humor
  • I Drew This political cartoon: Compromise Both Sides