Sunk Cost Fallacy, Appeal to Emotion, Ad Hominem

Submission 10,079

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About

Sunk Cost Fallacy, Appeal to Emotion, Ad Hominem refers to a series of Wojak and Yes Chad memes in which one character argues with another, who answers with terms including, "sunk cost fallacy," "appeal to emotion," "ad hominem" and "whataboutism" to shut down the argument. The exploitable meme format is inspired by a February 2022 post to Twitter and was popularized over the course of the year, often with people replacing the character on the left and altering the man on the right.

Origin

On February 9th, 2022, Twitter^[1] user @JUNlPER posted a Soyjak meme captioned, "The Fallacy Understaner," showing a Wojak character surrounded by terms used to callout logical fallacies, such as, "red herring," "did you just use an ad hominem," "nice appeal to ignorance" and "this is a sunk cost fallacy," garnering over 6,100 likes in two months (shown below).

On March 2nd, iFunny^[2] user FriendlyPhallicFailure posted a similar meme using a version of the "Yes Chad" meme in which a mother yells at her son about leaving her to travel the world. In the meme, the son refutes all of her arguments with the terms, "sunk cost fallacy," "appeal to emotion" and "ad hominem" (shown below). The post gained roughly 22 smiles in a year. It was then reposted to /r/196^[3] by Redditor u/Dodge-Viper-2000 on June 22nd, garnering over 15,600 upvotes in 10 months

Spread

The format spread over the course of 2022, inspiring numerous variations. On June 25th, 2022, Instagram^[4] user punished.dmitri.amiibo posted a Breaking Bad version of the meme, garnering over 280 likes in 10 months (shown below, left). It was then reposted to Facebook^[5] by Daily Reminder on June 28th, garnering over 580 reactions and 160 shares and to /r/PhilosophyMemes^[6] that July, garnering over 960 upvotes in nine months. On June 21st, Twitter^[7] user and webcomic creator Haus of Decline posted a comic similar to the memes, garnering over 36,000 likes in nine months (shown below, right).

On July 15th, Instagram^[8] user totalphilosophy posted a version of the meme that gained over 580 likes in nine months. On the same day, Instagram^[9] user chadcapy posted a version of the meme about capybara and YouTuber Urban Rescue Ranch, garnering over 3,400 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

On September 8th, 2022, Instagram^[10] user cloakermccloakerson posted a version of the meme that garnered over 1,400 likes in seven months (shown below). It was reposted by Instagram^[11] user salad.snake on September 13th, garnering over 49,100 likes in the same span of time.

On March 9th, 2023, Twitter^[12] user @UpdatingOnRome posted a version of the meme, garnering over 440 likes in a month. On April 3rd, Twitter^[13] user @LambdaBestGirl2 posted a version of the meme referencing the Homophobic Ruby meme, garnering over 3,100 likes in four days.