Animistic Fallacy
From Wikipedia — The animistic fallacy is the informal fallacy of arguing that an event or situation necessarily arose because someone intentionally acted to cause it. While it could be that someone set out to effect a specific goal, the fallacy appears in an argument that states this must be the case. The name of the fallacy comes from the animistic belief that changes in the physical world are the work of conscious spirits.
Generally we think of animistic beliefs as something from the neanderthal days or something practiced by tribal savages. While we generally don’t ascribe every unexplained thing to some spiritual force these days, looking to explain things and finding someone or something behind the curtain seems like part of the human condition. When something goes wrong or something bad happens we generally look for someone to blame. We need to explain why it happened and who caused it and even if its irrational, it seems to make us feel better. The underlying instinct seems similar.
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If a decision is made at work that we don’t like, we find some way to blame our uniformed overlords for not caring or maybe just not being that smart. If someone cuts us off in traffic, they are a jerk (this may be a different kind of fallacy), if our technology is over-reaching and there are privacy concerns its because Zuckerberg and Bezos are money hungry tyrants trying to take over the world, if our hospital doesn’t have the right masks its Donald Trump’s fault, if the media says something we don’t like its because they have an agenda and they are biased and can’t be trusted.
Conspiracy theories largely seem to be part of this same phenomenon — its a way to satisfy our distrust and explain things that we don’t understand. it doesn’t seem to matter if the explanation is a bit crazy, it makes us feel better anyway.
I think of myself as more objective, logical and rational than most but perhaps everyone views themselves that way. Ray Dalio talks about pursuing truth by listening thoughtfully to people you disagree with and toviewpoints different from your own. Getting to the truth and finding the right answer is easier said than done since our own biases and coping mechanisms get in the way. At a time when clear thinking is more important than ever, it seems to be getting lost in the noise of everyone shouting, waving their hands about something and finding someone to blame.
