Stolen Concept Fallacy

The stolen concept fallacy is committed when someone requires the truth of something that they are at the same time trying to disprove. In other words, concept A is used to deny concept B, although A depends on B.

Many conspiracy theories are the results of a stolen concept, including many flat Earth claims. Usually, flat-Earthers would use a scientific concept to disprove science itself. On the other hand, the concept itself depends on science.

Some examples:

  • Flat-Earthers refuse to accept that human beings can travel to space because of the Van Allen radiation belts. Meanwhile, much research about the Van Allen radiation belts was done by NASA, which often brought people to space.
  • Flat-Earthers deny the existence of satellites because of the high temperature in the thermosphere. On the other hand, the information was provided by those launched satellites. Not to mention that the measurements were performed by satellites as well.

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