Fallacious Arguments Series – Middle Ground

The Middle Ground fallacy rests upon the assumption that a compromise between two extremes is always correct, regardless of whether either extreme (or both) is true or false. Example:

Albert: Everyone who can have a COVID vaccine should have one. If too few people are vaccinated, we will never achieve herd immunity.

Gloria: No one should be forced to vaccinate. No one I know wants it.

Albert: I didn’t say that. People who can be vaccinated should be, we all have a moral obligation to protect those who can’t.

Gloria: How about everyone decides what’s right for themselves.

Gloria has set up her own extreme poles, everyone she knows is either forced to vaccinate or doesn’t vaccinate. She’s then created a middle ground which sounds, in a vacuum, reasonable.