Guilt by association, also known as the bad company fallacy or the company that you keep fallacy, is the logical fallacy of claiming that something must be false because of the people or organisations who support it.
Examples:
- Atheism must be wrong, because Karl Marx and Stalin were atheists, and just look at them.
- John: "I think that there should be heavier penalties for drug-dealers".
Steve: "Really? That's a British National Party policy! You don't want to support those racists, do you?"
- Osama bin Laden is a Muslim, so Islam is an evil religion.
- Catholic priests molest children, so all Catholics and Catholicism is evil.
Guilt by association is a special case of red herring. It is often an appeal to emotion.
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