Close-up of Duchess sprinting after a screaming Bruno, holding Hoppy the grasshopper in his face outside the house

You Too Fallacy: Everyone's Scared of Something

Duchess is scared of a vegetable! How pathetic!

Bruno the beagle sneaks up behind Duchess while she eats, hiding a cucumber behind his back and whispering "Psst.."
Duchess screams "AAAAAAAAH!" and launches into the air at the sight of the cucumber, sending her food bowl flying
Bruno sits on the floor laughing hysterically and holding up the cucumber, saying "I can't believe you're scared of the cucumber!!"
Duchess gets her revenge — she chases Bruno with Hoppy the grasshopper as Bruno sprints away screaming "AAAAH!" Duchess says "Speaking of irrational fears, meet Hoppy!"

Turns out, Bruno is terrified of harmless grasshoppers!

Want to learn more about the You Too fallacy? Check out our activity pack for fun activities that help you spot this common logical fallacy.

You Too Fallacy in a Nutshell

The You Too fallacy is when someone responds to criticism by pointing out that the critic does the same thing. As if that makes either of you right.

Bruno scared Duchess with a cucumber. He found this extremely funny. He laughed. He held up the cucumber. He could not believe she was scared of a vegetable. Classic Bruno.

Then Duchess introduced Hoppy. Hoppy is a grasshopper. Bruno is, apparently, terrified of grasshoppers. Suddenly it wasn't so funny. Two irrational fears. Zero moral high ground.

That's the fallacy. "You do it too" doesn't make the original criticism wrong - it just means you'd both rather change the subject. It's not a defence. It's a distraction.

Hoppy, for the record, found the whole thing very entertaining.

See all 24 fallacies in What Are the Most Common Logical Fallacies?

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