The "If then" Fallacy

Very very often people will formulate an argument based on an "if" that to some degree simply begs the question. These arguments when simplified sound something like: "if people would change they would be able to change" or "if something was different than what it was, it would be different than what it was". In some ways these kind of contributions can be meaningless. It is like saying " if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a trolley car".

If the "if" part is not very implementable, then the "then" part is not very implementable. Statements like: "If everyone voted responsibly we would not elect incompetent people" and "If we all listened to each other more, there would be less chance of war" are not very productive because the "if" part is not very implementable. Despite this, go to any group discussion and you'll hear plenty of contributions in this format. This is one reason why committees tend to have the reputation of not getting very much done.