Schwarzsengxpdqzzz…Arnold…is probably smarter than your average politician (few know that when he became an actor, he was already a successful self-made businessman), but sometimes he says remarkably stupid things. Like here, where he makes an analogy to flat earthers and then stops, thinking he’s made an argument. He forgets to show how denialists are like flat earthers, thus tying the analogy to the reality.

Generally, when someone does something as intellectually lazy and careless as this, I conclude the person is stupid. The only reason I’m not doing that here is that this particular example of laziness is widespread. I hear it from a lot of people, even intelligent ones. I also hear the fallacy in other places. For example, in politics, when BDS sufferers talk about “sheeple” without ever showing why the people they are insulting are like sheep. They’ve just made up a nifty word and figure it can stand on its own.

The underlying cause of this laziness is that they in fact can’t tie the two together–Arnold can’t show why denialists are like flat earthers, BDS sufferers can’t show why this or that group are like sheep. So they just put it out there and hope people are sufficiently impressed by the image that they fail to notice it has no substance.

One of my favorite quotes is from Voltaire: A witty saying proves nothing.