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The red herring (3)

You should never set out upon a weak argument without a pocketful of red herrings to sustain you through the course of it. As your intellectual energies begin to fail, your supply of them will give you breathing space. If you aspire to the ranks of the experts you should select your red herrings on the basis of the known interests of your audience. Every pack has its favourite aroma; and your red herrings should be chosen with that in
mind. As you toss them out as needed, the audience will be unable to resist their favourite bait. You can gain respite in the most difficult situations by skilfully introducing the subject of the arguer’s bad back, or even his summer holidays. In real desperation you can bring up his pet cat.

Refuting the example
Examples are often adduced in support of an argument. When attention is focused on showing the example to be a false one, but leaving the central thesis unchallenged, the fallacy is known as ‘refuting the example’.

‘Teenagers are very bad-mannered these days. That boy from next door
nearly knocked me over in the street yesterday, and didn’t even stay apologize. ‘ ‘You’re wrong. Simon is no longer a teenager.’ (None of which knocks over the original assertion, only one example.)

While an example can illustrate and reinforce an argument, the discrediting of it does not discredit the argument itself. There may be many other instances which support the thesis, and which are genuine cases.

Taken from : How To Win Every Argument