.Nicolas Taleb made up a good word for it: pedophrasty.[...]
Pedophrasts prey on our maternal (and paternal) instincts.
Pedophrasty has its most effects on actors, journalists and similar types who are intellectually insecure, deprived of critical judgment, and afraid of being classified as violators of some norm of political correctness
The above description makes it fall into the category of logical fallacies similar to appeals to emotion: From List of fallacies - Wikipedia
Appeal to emotion – an argument is made due to the manipulation of emotions, rather than the use of valid reasoning.[73]
- Appeal to fear – an argument is made by increasing fear and prejudice towards the opposing side[74]
- [...]
- Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordiam) – an argument attempts to induce pity to sway opponents.[76]