Logical fallacies

loaded question

There is an assumption smuggled into that question.

  • “Why does your team keep missing deadlines?”

    “Are we missing deadlines? Let’s look.”

    Answering at all concedes the premise. Reject the premise first.

The classic is have you stopped beating your wife—yes and no both convict you. Real ones are subtler, but the structure is the same: a contested claim disguised as background to a question.

How to answer it: refuse the frame before answering. “That assumes X—let’s check X.”

Now go reject the premise.