“Edi ikaw na matalino!

”
Most people probably encountered this “culture” that is very rampant in the attitudes of Filipinos
nowadays. “Whatever”, “Edi ikaw na!”, “Edi ikaw na magaling!”, and “Nag-english lang, feeling
matalino na!” are the commonly seen in online platform like Facebook. You may come across
these comments when some individuals are debating about topic or issue. We refer to these
phrases as “smart-shaming”. According to dictionary.com, it is “a person opposed to or hostile
toward intellectuals and the modern academic, artistic, social, religious, and other theories
associated with them.”
As for the explanation on why the screenshot above shows and example of fallacy, it’s because
smart-shaming can be traced to a common logical fallacy, which is ad hominem or the personal
attack fallacy.
Ad hominem occurs when someone attacks another person’s attributes, instead of his or her
argument. This fallacy eliminates the possibility of producing an educational and intellectual
discourse where people debate topics objectively and without resorting to personal attacks
related to the person you are arguing with.
The picture above shows a fallacy that is what we call as false dilemma, also referred to as false
dichotomy, which is a fallacy that erroneously assumes that only two alternatives are possible
when, in fact, others exist. Although, some people make a distinction and define a false dilemma
as a fallacious argument that presents the two options as the only two options, while a false
dichotomy is the misinformed belief that the two options presented are the only two options.
And the image above, “Masama daw sa health yung white sand, so mas prefer ba nila ang white
plastic” is more of a dichotomy, because the netizen who posted it believes that the people who
disagree with the Manila Bay dolomite sand project, prefers it to be covered with plastics and
other trash.