Bigfoot Analysis Fallacies

Fallacy:	Definition:	Example:	Comment:
Accident	A sweeping generalization of a fact or a rule, presented as if it has no exception.	Pg 1: “excellent vision- 20/15, so I was not mistaken.”	There’s no way she could have mis-seen something because she has such great vision.
Wishful thinking	Something is true because I want it to be.	Pg 2: “At that point she came to the realization that what she had seen was a Bigfoot.”	They want it be a Bigfoot so there’s no way it could be any other creature.
Accident	A sweeping generalization of a fact or a rule, presented as if it has no exception.	Pg 2: “When asked if it could have been a bear she said she was positive that it wasn’t a bear…the creature she saw cross her driveway.”	There’s no way this could be a bear because bears don’t look like this. However, what’s to say that this isn’t a deformed or rare bear?
N/A	N/A	Pg 2: “They found 3 footprints in the hard dirt at the bottom of their driveway and on the road… She was able to approximate the being/creature’s height to as around 6’ tall, give or take, by having her husband stand in the sighting location.”	This sounds like a barefoot hippy walking around to me.
Slippery slope	A series of steps in a casual chain and the support/ probabilities for each is omitted in an argument that A basically causes Z.	Pg 2: “The homeowner came across a hollow tree…responses to the ten knocks she did…about a half a mile from her home she encountered something through rocks up into a tall pine tree knocking pine cones to the ground… The following day she returned with her husband only to find the pine trees in this section of the forest…and taken them from the area.”	This couldn’t have been kids in the area playing around, it has to be a Bigfoot.
Appeal to Misleading Authority (w/ Appeal to Celebrity & Appeal to Tradition)	Using an authority to affirm a conclusion when the authority is not expert enough, in the context, to assure the conclusion.	Pg 3: “Jeff is a Middle School Technology/Engineering teacher from MA…into the cryptozoology category since a young age.”	But does that make him credible? I’ve like this stuff too since I was little but that doesn’t mean I’m right.
Black or White	A false dilemma that asserts an untrue “either-or” or forced choice.	Pg 3: “I found the homeowner to be very sincere and a credible witness.”	Since she was nice you have to believe her.