Everyone should take Logic 101

The “tu quoque” (or “you, too”) fallacy is certainly one of the most prevalent. In it, the user responds to criticism by saying that the person criticizing him is guilty of the very same offense. Sometimes called the “appeal to hypocrisy” fallacy, the classic formulation is, “You can’t tell me not to smoke, mom. You smoke, too.”

Of course, someone violating the rule doesn’t invalidate the rule itself. It only means that you’re both guilty of it. The moral force doesn’t lie in the consistency of the person raising the criticism, but rather in the rationale or authority behind the rule in the first place.

Sadly, in responding to the recent talk by liberals about the need for a more civil tone in talk radio and TV, the vast majority of conservatives have employed some variant of this fallacy. The problem is that it’s difficult to convincingly maintain you are morally better than your opponents when the only defense you offer for your conduct is that it is no worse than theirs.

Being better than your them means allowing yourself to be held to a higher standard than, “They do it, too.”