This is part nine of a 12 week series where I explore the tactics of verbal cheap shot artists – people who can’t, or won’t use valid arguments to present their case, but instead resort to verbal cheap shots. To make sure you don’t miss a single article, be sure and sign up for my RSS ^[2] feed or subscribe by email ^[3] (both are free!) so you can get the freshest new articles! Check out my other posts in the Verbal Cheap Shots ^[4] category.

The red herring is much like other verbal fallacies ^[4] – it relies on distraction as its main strength. The phrase “red herring” is thought to have originated from the use of smoked herring fish to distract dogs following a scent trail. The herring’s strong smell could obscure the real trail and lay a false one.

Using an ad hominem attacks ^[5] could be considered a red herring since it tries to deflect attention away from the real issue and focus it on a person. The straw man argument ^[6] could also be considered another form of a red herring.