Bad arguments can be used for many of the same purposes as fake news. As the Wikipedia article quoted in the About Fake News page, bad arguments deliberately "spread of misinformation in social media or traditional news media with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically." They are also often used to distract from the real news. This section lists a few types of bad arguments.
Adapted from: An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi
Appeal to Fear: These arguments suggest that something bad will happen if you do not do as the person arguing says but there is no basis for something bad happening.
Changing Reality to Suit a Belief: If someone said that all swans are white and then encountered a black swan, which could be confirmed to be a swan based on genetic tests, then the person could redefine swan to necessarily be the color white.
Circular Reasoning: This argument says, "I'm right, because I say I am right.
Personal Attack or Ad Hominem Attack: These are arguments against the person arguing rather than the substance of the argument.
Rapid Generalization or Cherry Picking Evidence: This is when someone assumes that one example or a very small number of samples constitutes a universal pattern. For instance, Chicago has a high crime rate therefore the USA has a high crime rate.
Contradictions: When two statements contradict each other they cancel each other. Therefore neither contradictory statement should be viewed as true.
Argument from Consequences: These arguments state that because the consequences are undesirable, the statement is false. An example is Dostoevsky's sentence: "If god does not exist, then everything is permitted."
Straw Man: This is when someone sets up a weak argument in place of a strong argument and then proceeds to defeat the weak argument.
Appeal to Irrelevant Authority: These arguments appeal to someone who is not an authority on the subject of the argument. For example, appealing to an expert in physics to argue about abortion.
False Dichotomy or False Binary: These arguments set out two choices as if they are the only choices, when other choices are available. For instance, "you agree with us or you are unpatriotic" is a false dichotomy.
Not a Cause for a Cause: These arguments assume causation when there is a coincidental sequence. For instance: "The reason the tsunami struck this coast was because of the religion of the people who lived on the coast."
Appeal to Ignorance: When there is no compelling evidence that something does not exist, does not mean that it does exist or because we do not know something does not mean that the supernatural or aliens is the explanation.
Guilt by Association: This is an attack against the person based on association with another person or organization. For instance, "you cannot trust him, he was friends with someone who is now in jail for robbing a bank."
Slippery Slope: This is an argument that says that if you allow a little, soon a sequence of increasingly undesirable events will happen. For instance, if you eat a cookie, soon the entire box will be gone and then you will go to the store and buy all the cookies...
Appeal to the People: This argues that the crowd must be correct.
An Additional Resource:
"Truth, Politics and the Power of Contradiction" The New York Times May 7, 2016
