Wishless thinking

I was thinking that, as a logical fallacy, we're all familiar with wishful thinking, believing that something is true because it would be beneficial or pleasant. You could call this an "argument from optimism," and it certainly is fallacious, but I think there is an also-common and equally fallacious "argument from pessimism." I'm sure we've all seen "the real world isn't that rosy" type arguments. To take some of my favorite Alfie Kohn books as examples, if someone marshals lots of empirical evidence to show that, say, kids will be fine without a ton of homework, or that striving against each other in ruthless competition is unnecessary, saying "nice try, but we don't live in that kind of utopia" does nothing to refute the empirical studies or the author's use of them, it's just "argument from pessimism."

That something would comport with wishful thinking is no evidence that it's correct, but it is also no evidence that it's incorrect.