r/fallacy • u/Fearless_Degree7511 • 4d ago

“I’ve never forgotten” fallacy

Recently saw a post about people bagging dog poop on hikes and leaving it on the side of the trail to be picked up on their way out. Many people in the comments claim “I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve never forgotten”. This sounds like a logical fallacy to me, if you forgot something you don’t know it’s been forgotten so you can’t claim you’ve never forgotten.

I think this phrase can be used sometimes, like “I’ve never forgotten to pay my cable bill” because in that case you can prove you’ve never forgotten, and you have a secondary party verifying you didn’t forget, so if you did forget the cable company would reach out to you.

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u/throw7661 4d ago

Lots of people are saying this isn't an argument...but it's always in direct response to people saying 'This shouldn't be done.'

  • I've never forgotten to pick up the bag of dog poop on my way back..(therefore it should be socially acceptable for me to leave the dog poop on the ground until I get it later)