Furtive Fallacy
Outcomes are asserted to have been caused by the misconduct or wrongdoing of decision makers.
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Origin
American historian David Hackett Fischer coined the term in his 1970 book Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. Fischer identified it as the belief that significant historical events are necessarily sinister, arguing that "history itself is a story of causes mostly insidious and results mostly invidious." The fallacy attributes historical outcomes to hidden misconduct rather than complex systemic factors.
Updated February 22, 2026