Fallacy of Aggressive Amnesia is an argumentation tactic whereby a person continually hops from topic to topic forgetting about the original contested premise. This is a very confusing and efficient tactic and can be quite aggressive in nature. It is similar to a red herring fallacy in that it distracts the other person from the the original contested premise. The difference is the style and tactic of an almost unconscious like “amnesia” of all counter arguments. The person attempts to overwhelm or flood the argument with so many new points and arguments leaving no room to efficiently respond. Each counter argument is responded to with several new arguments or fallacies not directly related.

Proposed Statement: A is B, C

Contest the Premise: A

Fallacy of Aggressive Amnesia: C is D! and E is F! and G is H!

There are few options when dealing with people employing this logical fallacy. It takes great mental control and discipline to deal with them. We have to keep bringing the focus back to the original premise or break away from the argument completely. It is likely that the person will just continue in the machine gun like attack of topic hopping. If they don’t stop, simply declare the nature of their fallacy and discontinue the argument. This is a defense mechanism of those wishing to create a security blanket mimicking logic and/or knowledge so that they do not have to confront their argument or beliefs. Often time these people will be intelligent but very intellectually dishonest.

I came up with this fallacy on my own from my experiences in debating with people.