This category is responsible for a huge number of errors. There are lots of writers and bloggers out there who are good at what I'll call "hypnotic writing". This is writing in such a way that a person is convinced of your argument, but not through rational means. It is somewhat hard to explain, but I find it easy to spot.
Hypnotic writing is really a skill. Some people just naturally do it, and others increase their skill at it over time.
In this blog, I try to write in a non-hypnotic way, and instead analyze things in a rational manner. I see others who write hypnotically and then gather big audiences. For sure, if you learn to write in a hypnotic way, you will gain an audience. You only have to look at an example like Anthony Robbins who has put millions under his trance.
I read about this phenomenon a while back in an evolutionary psychology book (though I can't remember which one). The argument was that communication in an evolutionary sense was always more about persuasion and entertainment than rational thought. You can see this in book sales - sales of fiction books dwarf the sales of non-fiction books.
I think some people put hypnotic writing to good use, but others mostly use it to stroke their ego. This is why scientific journals are written in the way they are - all the style and personality is taken out, and only the argument remains. This is how science moves forward. Hypnotic writing is usually not the way to improved knowledge.
