Deferring to authoritative sources makes one vulnerable to their weaponization

Evidence

But Gore himself had elevated Revelle’s status by basing his environmentalism on Revelle’s authority. This gave Singer—along with Will, Stockdale, and the many others who subsequently quoted the Cosmos article—new grounds for attacking Gore. Indeed, anyone who tended to agree with Gore was particularly vulnerable to this sort of argument, since it is precisely them who would have given special credibility to Revelle’s opinion. — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 449

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Agreement on unrelated topics buys trust that propagandists exploit — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 465; Citing sources rhetorically when they lack dispositive effect constitutes an appeal to authority — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1045; Polemical claims grow more cautious when examined against actual sources — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1314 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Citing sources rhetorically when they lack dispositive effect constitutes an appeal to authority #expands (0.85) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1045
• Polemical claims grow more cautious when examined against actual sources #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1314
• Choosing source material with disciplined restraint made this polemic unusually effective #complicates (0.72)