Zylman's Razor

Here is a partial list of philosophical razors, which are "principles that "shave off" or eliminate unlikely explanations, helping to simplify reasoning and avoid unnecessary steps", per Dr. Google and Wikipedia:

• Occam's Razor: When faced with competing explanations for the same phenomenon, the simplest one is often the correct one. 
• Hitchens's Razor: Any claim asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. 
• Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. 
• Alder's Razor: If an explanation requires more assumptions than another explanation for the same phenomenon, the explanation with fewer assumptions is preferred. 
• Hume's Razor: Claims must be supported by evidence equal to their magnitude; for a large claim, large evidence is needed. 
• Sagan Standard: A variation on Hitchens's Razor that states "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". 
• Popper's Falsifiability Principle: A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, meaning it must be possible to prove it wrong. 
• Newton's Flaming Laser Sword: The principle that what can be asserted without evidence can also be destroyed without evidence. 
• Grice's Razor: The principle that you should assume the speaker means what they say, avoiding over-interpretation. 
• Einstein's Razor:  Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.
• Hume's Guillotine:  Or the "is-ought problem", is the philosophical observation by David Hume that one cannot logically derive prescriptive "ought" statements (what should be) from purely descriptive "is" statements (what is the case) without an unstated or unjustified assumption. 

(There are several other such razors as well, see the complete list.)

Enter the late Professor Richard Zylman.  In reference to a trio of great studies regarding the drinking age by Zylman (1974a and 1974b) and also Zylman (1978) that I had recently came across again, I think it is a good idea to add the following to the list of philosophical razors:

Zylman's Razor:  "There is a real danger that if we look for evil, we will find it--even when it does not exist", or, "It is easy to find evil if one seeks evil; this is especially true when youth and alcohol are concerned".  (These are verbatim quotes of his.)

We should also note a corollary as well, that this does NOT only apply to phantom evils, but also to real evils that have really existed all along, but were widely ignored, underreported, or undercounted, and are only belatedly uncovered.  (And in the specific case of drunk driving, it seems that both have been true.) Either way, it creates an illusion of new or increasing evil, which then all too often leads to moral panic and illiberal policies.

Zylman was one of the lone voices of reason at a time of increasing moral panic regarding youth drinking and DUI, and thus the legal drinking age.  America ignored him at our peril.