R ecently, we’ve watched the country’s leaders and lawmakers slog through some pretty heavy rhetoric as they dealt with health care reform, reform of the fi nancial system, and the midterm elections of federal and state officials. We’ve also heard some pretty good arguments and seen some pretty good evidence—mainly in the form of studies we believe were done in a professional manner by trustworthy people—that such reforms are needed. But determining which information is “good”—something we, of course, must do to participate successfully in a democ- racy—can be difficult amidst the clatter and bang of warring political parties, adversarial media personalities, rantings (and sometimes unreliable information) from the blogo- sphere, and shouting in the streets. In fact, the emotional tone of public discussion and debate has lately reached lev- els we haven’t seen since the 1960s, and the rhetoric often seems more gratuitously misleading now than it did in those days. (It may be that your authors were simply too young to recognize it back then, of course. Ahem.)
As it becomes more difficult to fi nd serious discussions of important issues, it gets easier and easier to fi nd examples of rhetorical devices designed to provoke emotional, knee- jerk reactions. Unfortunately (for us as individuals as well as for public policy), it can be altogether too easy to allow
Students will learn to . . . 1. Recognize and name fallacies that
appeal directly to emotion
2. Recognize and name fallacies that appeal to psychological elements other than emotion
6 More Rhetorical Devices Psychological and Related Fallacies
184
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FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION 185
emotional responses to take the place of sound judgment and careful think- ing. In this chapter, we’ll target some specifi c devices designed to prompt ill- considered reactions rather than sound judgment—devices that go beyond the rhetorical coloration we talked about in the last chapter. The stratagems we’ll discuss sometimes masquerade as arguments, complete with premises and conclusions and language that would suggest argumentation. But while they may be made to look or sound like arguments, they don’t provide legitimate grounds for accepting a conclusion. In place of good reasons for a conclusion, most of the schemes we’ll look at in this chapter offer us considerations that are emotionally or psychologically linked to the issue in question. The support they may appear to offer is only pretended support; you might think of them as pieces of pretend reasoning, or pseudoreasoning.
The devices in this chapter thus all count as fallacies (a fallacy is a mis- take in reasoning). The rhetorical devices we discussed in the last chapter— euphemisms, innuendo, and so forth—aren’t fallacies. Of course, we commit a fallacy if we think a claim has been supported when the “support” is nothing more than rhetorically persuasive language.
People constantly accept fallacies as legitimate arguments; but the reverse mistake can also happen. We must be careful not to dismiss legitimate arguments as fallacies just because they remind us of a fallacy. Often, begin- ning students in logic have this problem. They read about fallacies like the ones we cover here and then think they see them everywhere. These fallacies are common, but they are not everywhere; and you sometimes must consider a specimen carefully before accepting or rejecting it. The exercises we’ll sup- ply will help you learn to do this, because they contain a few reasonable argu- ments mixed in with the fallacies.
All the fallacies in this chapter have in common the fact that what pre- tends to be a premise is actually irrelevant to the conclusion. That is, even if the premise is true, it does not provide any reason for believing that the con- clusion is true.
FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION One can arrange fallacies into groups in a number of ways: fallacies of rel- evance, of ambiguity, of presumption, of distraction, and so on. We’ve chosen in this chapter to talk fi rst about fallacies that involve appeals to emotion, fol- lowed by fallacies that depend in part on psychological impact but that do not appeal directly to one emotion or another. Incidentally, we don’t want to give the idea that all appeals to emotion are fallacious, misleading, or bad in some other way. Often we accomplish our greatest good works as a result of such appeals. One burden of the next section is to help you distinguish between relevant and irrelevant calls on our emotions.
The Argument from Outrage A while back, an article in the Washington Post by Ceci Connolly summa- rized a New England Journal of Medicine report that gave credit to new med- ical technology for lowered battlefi eld death rates in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many fewer casualties were dying than had ever been the case in wartime before. The most widely heard radio talk show host in America,
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186 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
Rush Limbaugh, made use of this report to express his outrage at liberal critics of the war.
They’re just livid—the press, the leftists in this country—are just upset there are not enough deaths to get people outraged and protesting in the streets against the war. They’re mad these doc- tors are saving lives. They want deaths!
H is voice was tense with disbelief and indignation that “the Left” wanted more soldiers to die. * This technique of expressing out- rage—anybody who doesn’t see this point must be a fool or a trai- tor!—is one we’ve identifi ed with Limbaugh because he was one of the early masters of the method; we’ve even considered refer- ring to the use of outrage to persuade people as “the Limbaugh fallacy.” But the technique is not unique to Limbaugh, of course; it’s typical of today’s hard-line talk show people. And apparently it works, if the people who call in to the programs are any indi- cation, since they tend to be as outraged at the goings-on as the hosts of the programs. That’s the idea, of course. If a person gets angry enough about something, if one is in the throes of righteous
indignation, then it’s all too easy to throw reason and good sense out the win- dow and accept whatever alternative is being offered by the speaker just from indignation alone.
Now, does this mean that we never have a right to be angry? Of course not. Anger is not a fallacy, and there are times when it’s entirely appropriate. However, when we are angry—and the angrier or more outraged we are, the more true this becomes—it’s easy to become illogical, and it can happen in two ways. First, we may think we have been given a reason for being angry when in fact we have not. It is a mistake to think that something is wrong just because it makes somebody angry, even if it’s us whom it seems to anger. It’s easy to mistake a feeling of outrage for evidence of something, but it isn’t evidence of anything, really, except our anger.
Second, we may let the anger we feel as the result of one thing influence our evaluations of an unrelated thing. If we’re angry over what we take to be the motives of somebody’s detractors, we must remember that their motives are a separate matter from whether their criticisms are accurate; they might still be right. Similarly, if a person does something that makes us mad, that doesn’t provide us a reason for downgrading him on some other matter, nor would it be a reason for upgrading our opinion of someone else.
The argument from outrage,** then, consists of infl ammatory words (or thoughts) followed by a “conclusion” of some sort. It substitutes anger for reason and judgment in considering an issue. It is a favorite strategy of dema-
* We should say that our own investigation could not turn up anyone, from the Left or anywhere else, who wanted more Americans to die. We did find, however, that one result of the new technology was a much higher number of soldiers who were returning alive but seriously wounded, including great numbers of amputees. (The 6 percent amputee rate for wounded soldiers is about double that of previous wars, due primarily to the widespread use of roadside bombs.)
** Although we use the phrase “argument from outrage” here, we should make it clear that evoking a person’s sense of outrage does not count as making an argument, although as indicated, this emotional appeal is very often a substitute for an argument.
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FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION 187
gogues. In fact, it is the favorite strategy of demagogues. Let’s say the issue is whether gay marriages should be legal. Left-of-center demagogues may wax indignantly about “narrow-minded fundamentalist bigots dictating what peo- ple can do in their bedrooms”—talk calculated to get us steamed although it really has nothing to do with the issue. On the other side, conservative dema- gogues may allude to gays’ demanding “special rights.” Nobody wants some- one else to get special rights, and when we hear about somebody “demanding” them, our blood pressure goes up. But wanting a right other people have is not wanting a special right; it’s wanting an equal right.
A particularly dangerous type of “argument” from outrage is known as scapegoating —blaming a certain group of people, or even a single person (like George W. Bush or Barack Obama), for all of life’s troubles. George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama who ran for president in 1968 on a “states’ rights platform” (which then was a code word for white supremacy) said he could get good old Southern boys to do anything by “whupping” them into a frenzy over Northern civil rights workers.
“Arguments” based on outrage are so common that the fallacy ranks high on our list of the top ten fallacies of all time, which can be found inside the front cover. It’s unfortunate they are so common—history demonstrates constantly that anger is a poor lens through which to view the world. Policies adopted in
The idea behind [talk radio] is to keep the base riled up.
—Republican political advisor BRENT LAUDER, explaining what talk radio is for.
In the Media
Wishful Thinking Fashion magazines are chock full of ads that are designed to associate a product with beautiful images (as discussed in Chapter 4). But even if using a product might make you smell like the guy in the photo, it isn’t likely to change anything else—to believe otherwise is to engage in wishful thinking, discussed later in this chapter.
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188 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
anger are seldom wise, as any parent will tell you who has laid down the law in a fi t of anger.
Scare Tactics George Wallace didn’t just try to anger the crowds when he told them what Northern civil rights workers were up to; he tried to scare them. When people become angry or afraid, they don’t think clearly. They follow blindly. Dema- gogues like Wallace like to dangle scary scenarios in front of people.
Trying to scare people into doing something or accepting a position is using scare tactics. One way this might be done is the George Wallace method— dangling a frightening picture in front of someone. A simpler method might be to threaten the person, a special case of scare tactics known as argument by force. Either way, if the idea is to get people to substitute fear for reason and judgment when taking a position on an issue, it is a fallacy. Likewise, it is a fallacy to succumb to such techniques when others use them on us. (This does not mean you shouldn’t give up your wallet to the guy with the gun aimed at your head. See the box “Prudential Grounds Versus Rational Grounds,” above.)
Real Life
Prudential Grounds Versus Rational Grounds
A scary or threatening situation can provide us with a prudential reason for acting on a claim, even though, outside the immediate circumstances, we would not accept it. For example, a person or organization might agree to pay a settlement to a person who claims his back was injured on their property, even though they believe, with good reason, that he is faking the injury. The fear of losing an even bigger sum in court provides prudential grounds for paying, even though they would never accept the claim that they should pay except for the threatening circumstances.
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FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION 189
Fear can befuddle us as easily as can anger, and the mistakes that happen are similar in both instances. Wallace’s listeners may not have noticed (or may not have cared) that Wallace didn’t actually give them evidence that civil rights workers were doing whatever it was he portrayed them as doing; the portrayal was its own evidence, you might say. When we are befuddled with fear, we may not notice we lack evidence that the scary scenario is real. Imagine someone talking about global warming: The speaker may paint a picture so alarming we don’t notice that he or she doesn’t provide evidence that global warming is actually happening. Or take gay marriages again. Someone might warn us of presumably dire consequences if gay people are allowed to marry—we’ll be opening “Pandora’s box”; marriage will become meaningless; homosexuality will become rampant; society will collapse—but he or she may issue these warnings without providing details as to why (or how) the consequences might actually come about. The consequences are so frightening they apparently don’t need proof.
Fear of one thing, X, may also affect evaluation of an unrelated thing, Y. You have your eye on a nice house and are considering buying it, and then the real estate agent frightens you by telling you the seller has received other offers and will sell soon. Some people in this situation might overestimate what they really can afford to pay.
To avoid translating fear of one thing into an evaluation of some un related thing, we need to be clear on what issues our fears are relevant to. Legitimate warnings do not involve irrelevancies and do not qualify as scare tactics. “You should be careful of that snake—it’s deadly poisonous” might be a scary thing to say to someone, but we don’t make a mistake in reasoning when we say it, and neither does the other person if he or she turns and runs into the house. Suppose, however, that the Michelin tire people show an ad featuring a sweet (and vulnerable) baby in a ring of automobile tires. Showing pictures of car tires around infants will produce disquieting associations in any observer, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to check our tires when we see this ad. But the issue raised by the Michelin people is whether to buy Michelin tires, and the fear of injuring or killing a child by driving on unsafe tires does not bear on the question of which tires to buy. The Michelin ad isn’t a legitimate warn- ing; it’s scare tactics.
Other Fallacies Based on Emotions Other emotions work much like anger and fear as sources of mistakes in rea- soning. Compassion, for example, is a fi ne thing to have. There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling sorry for someone. But when feeling sorry for someone drives us to a position on an unrelated matter, the result is the fal- lacy known as argument from pity. We have a job that needs doing; Helen can barely support her starving children and needs work desperately. But does Helen have the skills we need? We may not care if she does; and if we don’t, nobody can fault us for hiring her out of compassion. But feeling sorry for Helen may lead us to misjudge her skills or overestimate her abilities, and that is a mistake in reasoning. Her skills are what they are, regardless of her need. Or, suppose you need a better grade in this course to get into law school or to avoid academic disqualifi cation or whatever. If you think you deserve or have earned a better grade because you need a better grade, or you try to get your instructor to think you deserve a better grade by trying to make him or her feel sorry for you, that’s the argument from pity. Or, if you think someone else
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190 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
deserves a better grade because of the hardships he or she (or his or her parents) suffered, that’s also the “argument” from pity.
Envy and jealousy can also confuse our thinking. Compassion, a desir- able emotion, may tempt us to emphasize a person’s good points; envy and jealousy tempt us to exaggerate someone’s bad points. When we fi nd fault with a person because of envy, we are guilty of the fallacy known as argument from envy. “Well, he may have a lot of money, but he certainly has bad man- ners” would be an example of this if it is envy that prompts us to criticize him.
Pride, on the other hand, can lead us to exaggerate our own accomplish- ments and abilities and can lead to our making other irrelevant judgments as well. It especially makes us vulnerable to apple polishing , by which we mean old-fashioned fl attery. Moore recently sat on a jury in a criminal case involv- ing alleged prostitution and pandering at a strip club; the defendant’s attorney told the members of the jury it would take “an unusually discerning jury” to see that the law, despite its wording, wasn’t really intended to apply to some- one like his client. Ultimately, the jury members did fi nd with the defense, but let us hope it wasn’t because the attorney fl attered their ability to discern things. Allowing praise of oneself to substitute for judgment about the truth
Real Life
Knee Operation Judged Useless Fake Surgery Worked Just as Well in Cases of Osteoarthritis.
Here we are doing all this surgery on people and it’s all a sham.
—DR. BARUCH BRODY, Baylor College of Medicine
Wishful thinking—allowing our desires and hopes to color our beliefs and influence our judgment—is com- mon indeed. A powerful illustration of wishful thinking is the placebo effect, where subjects perceive improve- ment in a medical condition when they receive what they think is a medication but in fact is an inactive substance. Even surgical procedures, apparently, are subject to a placebo effect, judging from a study of a popular and expensive knee operation for arthritis. People who have had this procedure swear by it as sig- nificantly reducing pain. But researchers at the Hous- ton Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine discovered that subjects who underwent placebo (fake) surgery said exactly the same thing. Fur- thermore, when they tested knee functions two years after the surgery, the researchers discovered that the operation doesn’t improve knee functions at all.
Source: Sacramento Bee, from New York Times News Service.
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FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION 191
of a claim, or trying to get others to do this, as the lawyer did, is the apple- polishing fallacy.
Feelings of guilt work similarly. “How could you not invite Jennifer to your wedding? She would never do that to you, and you know she must be very hurt.” The remark is intended to make someone feel sorry for Jennifer, but even more fundamentally, it is supposed to induce a sense of guilt. Elicit- ing feelings of guilt to get others to do or not to do something, or to accept the view that they should or should not do it, is popularly known as putting a guilt trip on someone, which is to commit a fallacy. Parents sometimes use this tactic with children when they (the parents) won’t (or can’t) offer a clear expla- nation of why something should or shouldn’t be done. Certainly, if the child knowingly does something wrong, he or she should feel guilty; but whatever has been done isn’t wrong because he or she feels guilty.
Hopes, desires, and aversions can also lead us astray logically. The fal- lacy known as wishful thinking happens when we accept or urge acceptance (or rejection) of a claim simply because it would be pleasant (or unpleasant) if it were true. Some people, for example, may believe in God simply on the basis of wishful thinking or desire for an afterlife. A smoker may refuse to acknowledge the health hazards of smoking. We’ve had students who are in
Real Life
Patriotic Passion
The 2010 health proposals brought fierce emotional responses from opponents.
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192 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
denial about the consequences of cutting classes. The wishful-thinking fallacy also underlies much of the empty rhetoric of “positive thinking”—rhetoric that claims “you are what you want to be” and other such slogans. As obvious (and as obviously fallacious) as it may appear when you read about it here, wishful thinking can be a powerful infl uence and can some- times defeat all but our most committed efforts to do the rational thing.
Most people desire to be liked or accepted by some circle of other people and are averse to having the acceptance withdrawn. A desire for acceptance can motivate us to accept a claim not because of its merits but because we will gain someone’s approval (or will avoid having approval withdrawn). When we do this or try to get someone else to do it, the fallacy
is the peer pressure “argument.” Now, obviously nobody ever said anything quite so blatant as “Ralph, this claim is true because we won’t like you any- more if you don’t accept it.” Peer pressure is often disguised or unstated, but anyone going through an American high school, where you can lose social standing merely by being seen with someone who isn’t “in,” knows it is a real force. Kids who feel ostracized sometimes take guns to school.
It doesn’t have to be one’s associates who exert peer pressure, either. In scientifi c experiments, people will actually revise what they say they saw if a group of strangers in the same room deny having seen the same thing.
One very common fallacy that is closely related to the peer pressure “argument” involves one’s sense of group identification, which people experi- ence when they are part of a group—a team, a club, a school, a gang, a state, a nation, the Elks, the Tea Party movement, the U.S.A., Mauritius, you name it. Let’s defi ne the groupthink fallacy as substituting pride of membership in a group for reason and deliberation in arriving at a position on an issue; and let’s include the fallacy in our list of the top ten fallacies of all time, because it is exceedingly common. One obvious form of this fallacy involves national pride, or nationalism —a powerful and fi erce emotion that can lead to blind endorsement of a country’s policies and practices. (“My country right or wrong” explicitly discourages critical thinking and encourages blind patrio- tism.) Nationalism is also invoked to reject, condemn, or silence criticism of one’s country as unpatriotic or treasonable (and may or may not involve an element of peer pressure). If a letter writer expresses a criticism of America on the opinion page of your local newspaper on Monday, you can bet that by the end of the week there will be a response dismissing the criticism with the “argument” that if so-and-so doesn’t like it here, he or she ought to move to Russia (or Cuba or Iraq or Iran).
Groupthink does not play cultural or political favorites, either. On the opposite side of the political spectrum are what some people call the “blame America fi rst” folks. The groupthink ethic of this club includes, most impor- tantly, automatically assuming that whatever is wrong in the world is the result of some U.S. policy. The club has no formal meetings or rules for membership, but fl ying an American fl ag would be grounds for derision and instant dismissal.
Groupthink “reasoning” is certainly not limited to political groups, either. It occurs whenever one’s affiliations are of utmost psychological importance.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
—S AMUEL J OHNSON, 1775
Boswell, Johnson’s biog- rapher, does not indicate what the context is here, but he does say that it is false patriotism to which Johnson referred.
■ This “Patriotism Bear” is all decked out with flags, medals, and patches. He sells for $119.99 from Dollsville on the Web. Whether motivated by patriotism or profits, there are plenty of people ready to cash in on the patriotism bandwagon.
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FALLACIES THAT INVOLVE APPEALS TO EMOTION 193
Remember, these various emotional fallacies, from the “argument” from outrage to the groupthink fallacy, all share certain properties. They often (though not always) contain assertions you might call “premises” and other assertions that you might call a “conclusion.” But the “premises” don’t actu- ally support the “conclusion”; rather, they evoke emotions that make us want to accept the conclusion without support. So, although they can wear the cloth- ing of arguments, they are really pieces of persuasion (Chapter 5). Whenever language is used to arouse emotions, it is wise to consider carefully whether any “conclusions” that come to mind have been supported by evidence.
In the passages that follow identify any fallacies that were discussed in the pre- vious section of the text. There may be examples in which no fallacy occurs— don’t fi nd them where they don’t exist!
1. The tax system in this country is unfair and ridiculous! Just ask anyone! 2. Overheard: “Hmmmm. Nice day. Think I’ll go catch some rays.” “Says here in this magazine that doing that sort of thing is guaranteed to
get you a case of skin cancer.” “Yeah, I’ve heard that, too. I think it’s a bunch of baloney, personally. If
that were true, you wouldn’t be able to do anything—no tubing, skiing, nothing. You wouldn’t even be able to just plain lie out in the sun. Ugh!”
3. I’ve come before you to ask that you rehire Professor Johnson. I realize that Mr. Johnson does not have a Ph.D., and I am aware that he has yet to publish his fi rst article. But Mr. Johnson is over forty now, and he has a wife and two high-school-aged children to support. It will be very difficult for him to fi nd another teaching job at his age, I’m sure you will agree.
4. juan: But, Dad, I like Horace. Why shouldn’t I room with him, anyway? juan’s dad: Because I’ll cut off your allowance, that’s why! 5. That snake has markings like a coral snake. Coral snakes are deadly
poisonous, so you’d better leave it alone! 6. he: Tell you what. Let’s get some ice cream for a change. Sunrise
Creamery has the best—let’s go there. she: Not that old dump! What makes you think their ice cream is so
good, anyway? he: Because it is. Besides, that old guy who owns it never gets any busi-
ness anymore. Every time I go by the place, I see him in there all alone, just staring out the window, waiting for a customer. He can’t help it that he’s in such an awful location. I’m sure he couldn’t afford to move.
7. What do you mean you’ll vote for our wonderful Senator? Don’t you real- ize he voted for the blasted health care reform act? Don’t tell me you really want to see a government takeover of health care! Don’t tell me you want to see us taxed to death to pay for a whole new government bureaucracy!
8. “Jim, I’m very disappointed you felt it necessary to talk to the media about the problems here in the department. When you join the FBI, you join a family, and you shouldn’t want to embarrass your family.”
Exercise 6-1
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194 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
9. “Listen, Steve lives in a huge house, drives an expensive car, and makes twice the money you do. You’re never going to live like he does unless you cut some corners.”
10. A fi ctitious western governor: “Yes, I have indeed accepted $550,000 in campaign contributions from power companies. But as I stand here before you, I can guarantee you that not one dime of that money has affected any decision I’ve made. I make decisions based on data, not on donors.”
SOME NON-EMOTION–BASED FALLACIES The next three fallacy families—(1) red herrings, (2) appeals to popularity and tradition and such, and (3) rationalizing—all have psychological elements, but they do not make the same kind of direct emotional appeal that we fi nd in the preceding fallacies.
Red Herring/Smoke Screen When a person brings a topic into a conversation that distracts from the origi- nal point, especially if the new topic is introduced in order to distract, the person is said to have introduced a red herring. (It is so called because dragging a herring across a trail will cause a dog to leave the original trail and follow
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In Depth
The “True For . . .” Cop-Out Sometimes, especially when a controversial subject is under discussion, you’ll hear someone say, “Well, that may be true for you, but it isn’t true for me.”
If you stop to think about it, this is a peculiar thing to say. Certainly if the issue is about an objective fact—whether there is water on the moon, for example—then if it’s “true for” any- body, it’s true for everybody. As somebody recently said, you can choose your own opinions, but you can’t choose your own facts; the facts are just what they are, and they’re the same for everybody.
Of course, one person can believe something is true while another believes it isn’t true, but that’s a different matter entirely. If that is what the speaker means, he should simply say so clearly instead of using the paradoxical version we’re calling a cop-out.
When we say the expression is a cop-out, we mean it’s simply a way of saying “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” It’s a discussion ender. And it certainly does not do anything to resolve whatever the original issue was. We see this expression used most often, perhaps, in matters of religion, where many people hold strong beliefs, but for one reason or another, they do not want to engage in discussions about them.
The only place where our “true for . . . ” expression is not a cop-out is when the claim in question is subjective. For example, “Zinfandel tastes better than merlot.” This remark really can be true for one person and false for another, because they may really have two different tastes. Remember, whenever you hear the “true for…” expression about an objective factual matter, it’s just a way of saying “I’m done talking.”
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SOME NON-EMOTION–BASED FALLACIES 195
the path of the herring.) In the strip-joint jury trial we mentioned earlier, the defendant was charged with pandering; but the prosecuting attorney intro- duced evidence that the defendant had also sold liquor to minors. That was a red herring that had nothing to do with pandering.
The difference between red herrings and their close relatives, smoke screens, is subtle (and really not a matter of crucial importance). Generally speaking, red herrings distract by pulling one’s attention away from one topic and toward another; smoke screens tend to pile issues on or to make them extremely complicated until the original is lost in the (verbal) “smoke.” Some- times, the red herring or smoke screen involves an appeal to emotion, but often it does not. When Bill Clinton had missiles fi red at terrorists in Sudan, he was accused of creating a red herring to defl ect public scrutiny from the Monica Lewinsky business. When George W. Bush talked about Iraq having missiles capable of threatening the United States, about that country’s poten- tial of having a nuclear weapon “within six months,” and about similar pos- sible Iraqi threats, he was accused of putting up a smoke screen to hide his real reasons for wanting to attack Iraq, which were said to be oil interests and his own personal desire to complete his father’s unfi nished business.
Let’s take another example, this one made up but typical of what often happens. Suppose that Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico, holds a press conference, and a reporter asks him whether his use of federal troops in Juárez has made the city any safer from drug-related murders. Mr. Calderón answers, “I can guarantee you that everything the federal government can do to pacify the situation in Juárez is now being done.”
Calderón has avoided the reporter’s original question, possibly because he is not interested in admitting that the city is not any safer. He has changed the issue to one of what kind of effort the government is making. In so doing, he has dragged a red herring across the trail, so to speak. The government may or may not be doing all it can to keep the peace in Juárez, but in either case
We admit that this measure is popular. But we also urge you to note that there are so many bond issues on this ballot that the whole concept is getting ridiculous.
—A generic red herring (unclas- sifiable irrelevance) from a California ballot pamphlet
In the Media
A Red Herring in a Letter to Time Time’s coverage of the medical marijuana controversy was thoughtful and scrupulously researched. But what argues most persuasively for a ban on marijuana is the extraordinary threat the drug poses for adolescents. Marijuana impairs short – term memory, depletes energy and impedes acquisition of psychosocial skills. Perhaps the most chilling effect is that it retards maturation for young people. A significant number of kids who use lots of pot simply don’t grow up. So it is hardly surprising that marijuana is the primary drug for more than half the youngsters in the long-term residential substance-abuse programs that Phoenix House operates throughout the country.
—MITCHELL S. ROSENTHAL, M.D. , president, Phoenix House, New York City
The issue is legalization of marijuana for adults; the question of what it would do to children, who presumably would be prohibited from its use, is a red herring.
Source: Time, November 28, 2002.
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196 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
that is a separate matter from whether citizens are safer in Juárez since federal troops arrived.*
Let’s imagine that the conversation continues like this:
reporter: “Mr. Calderón, polls say that most of the country believes that the government has failed to make the situation safer. How do you answer your critics?”
felipe calderón: We are making progress toward reassuring people, but quite frankly our efforts have been hampered by the tendency of the press to concentrate on the negative side of the issue.”
Once again (in our fi ctional news conference), Calderón brings in a red herring to sidestep the issue raised by the reporter.
Whether a distraction or an obfuscation is a plain red herring or a smoke screen is often difficult to tell in real life, and it’s better to spend your energy getting a discussion back on track rather than worrying which type you have before you.
Many of the other fallacies we have been discussing in this chapter (and will be discussing in the next chapter) qualify, in some version or other, as red herrings/smoke screens. For example, a defense attorney might talk about a defendant’s miserable upbringing to steer a jury’s attention away from the charges against the person; doing this would qualify as an appeal to pity as well as a smoke screen/red herring. Likewise, a prosecuting attorney may try to get a jury so angry about a crime it doesn’t notice the weakness of the evidence pointing to the defendant. This would be an argument from outrage—and a red herring.
To simplify things, your instructor may reserve the red herring/smoke screen categories for irrelevancies that don’t qualify as one of the other falla- cies mentioned in this or the next chapter. In other words, he or she may tell you that if something qualifi es as, say, an argument from outrage, you should call it that rather than a red herring or a smoke screen.
Everyone Knows . . . In Chapter 5, we examined such proof surrogates as “Everyone knows . . .” and “It’s only common sense that . . .”. Phrases like this are often used when a speaker or writer doesn’t really have an argument.
Such phrases often appear in peer pressure “arguments” (“Pardner, in these parts everyone thinks . . .”). They also are used in the groupthink fal- lacy (“As any red-blooded American patriot knows, . . .). There is, however, a third way these phrases can be used. An example would be when Robert Novak said on CNN’s Crossfire, “Liberals are fi nally admitting what everyone knows, that airline safety demands compromise.” Novak wasn’t applying or evoking peer pressure or groupthink; he was offering “proof” that airline safety demands compromise. His proof is the fact that everyone knows it.
*Unfortunately, the number of homicides in Ciudad Juárez went from 317 in 2007 to 1,623 in 2008 and to 2,754 in 2009, according to government reports. That would make it the most dangerous city in the world during the latter two years.
Could somebody please show me one hospital built by a dol- phin? Could somebody show me one highway built by a dolphin? Could someone show me one automobile invented by a dolphin?
—RUSH LIMBAUGH, responding to the New York Times’ claim that dolphins’ “behavior and enormous brains suggest an intelligence approaching that of human beings”
Good point. Anyone know of a hospital or highway built by Rush Limbaugh or an automo- bile invented by him?
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SOME NON-EMOTION–BASED FALLACIES 197
When we do this, when we urge someone to accept a claim (or fall prey to someone’s doing it to us) simply on the grounds that all or most or some sub- stantial number of people (other than authorities or experts, of course) believe it, we commit the fallacy known as the appeal to popularity.
That most people believe something is a fact is not evidence that it is a fact—most people believe in God, for example, but that isn’t evidence that God exists. Likewise, if most people didn’t believe in God, that wouldn’t be evidence that God didn’t exist.
Most people seem to assume that bus driving and similar jobs are some- how less desirable than white-collar jobs. The widespread acceptance of this assumption creates its own momentum—that is, we tend to accept it because everybody else does, and we don’t stop to think about whether it actually has
Real Life
Is It Still a Lie If Everybody Does It? “Shell [Oil Company] was charged with mislead- ing advertising in its Platformate advertisements. A Shell spokesman said: ‘The same comment could be made about most good advertising of most products.’ ”
—SAMM S. BAKER, The Permissible Lie
A perfect example of the common-practice fallacy.
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198 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
anything to recommend it. For a lot of people, a job driving a bus might make for a much happier life than a job as a manager.
In some instances, we should point out, what people think actually deter- mines what is true. The meanings of most words, for example, are determined by popular usage. In addition, it would not be fallacious to conclude that the word “ain’t” is out of place in formal speech because most speakers of English believe that it is out of place in formal speech.
There are other cases where what people think is an indication of what is true, even if it cannot determine truth. If several Bostonians of your acquain- tance think that it is illegal to drink beer in their public parks, then you have some reason for thinking that it’s true. And if you are told by several Europe- ans that it is not gauche to eat with your fork in your left hand in Europe, then it is not fallacious to conclude that European manners allow eating with your fork in your left hand. The situation here is one of credibility, which we dis- cussed in Chapter 4. Natives of Boston in the fi rst case and Europeans in the second case can be expected to know more about the two claims in question, respectively, than others know. In a watered-down sense, they are “experts” on the subjects, at least in ways that many of us are not. In general, when the “everyone” who thinks that X is true includes experts about X, then what they think is indeed a good reason to accept X.
Thus, it would be incorrect to automatically label as a fallacy any instance in which a person cites people’s beliefs to establish a point. (No “argument” fi tting a pattern in this chapter should be dismissed unthinkingly. ) But it is important to view such references to people’s beliefs as red alerts. These are cautionary signals that warn you to look closely for genuine reasons in support of the claim asserted.
Two variations of the appeal to popularity deserve mention: Appeal to common practice consists in trying to justify or defend an action or practice (as distinguished from an assertion or claim) on the grounds that it is common. “I shouldn’t get a speeding ticket because everyone drives over the limit” is an example. “Everyone cheats on their taxes, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t” is another. Now, there is something to watch out for here: When a person defends an action by saying that other people do the same thing, he or she might just be requesting fair play. He or she might be saying, in effect, “Okay, okay, I know it’s wrong, but nobody else gets punished, and it would be unfair to single me out.” That person isn’t trying to justify the action; he or she is asking for equal treatment.
The other variant of the popularity fallacy is the appeal to tradition, a name that is self-explanatory. People do things because that’s the way things have always been done, and they believe things because that’s what people have always believed. But, logically speaking, you don’t prove a claim or prove a practice is legitimate on the basis of tradition; when you try to do so, you are guilty of the appeal to tradition fallacy. The fact that it’s a tradition among most American children to believe in Santa Claus, for instance, doesn’t prove Santa Claus exists; and the fact that it’s also a tradition for most American parents to deceive their kids about Santa Claus doesn’t necessarily mean it is okay for them to do so. Where we teach, there has been a long tradition of fraternity hazing, and over the years several unfortunate hazing incidents have happened. We have yet to hear a defense of hazing that amounted to anything other than an appeal to tradition, which is equivalent to saying we haven’t heard a defense at all.
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SOME NON-EMOTION–BASED FALLACIES 199
Rationalizing Let’s say Mr. Smith decides to do something really nice for his wife on her birthday and buys her a new table saw. “This saw wasn’t cheap,” he tells her. “But you’re going to be glad we have it, because it will keep me out in the garage and out of your way when you’re working here in the house.”
The fallacy in the reasoning in this made-up example is pretty obvious. Mr. Smith is confusing his wife’s desires with his own.
When we do this, when we use a false pretext to satisfy our own desires or interests, we’re guilty of rationalizing, a very common fallacy. It almost made our list of the top ten fallacies of all time.
Now, there is nothing wrong with satisfying one’s desires, at least if they don’t harm someone or aren’t illegal. But in this book, we’re talking logic, not morals. Rationalizing involves a confusion in thinking, and to the extent we wish to avoid being confused in our thinking, we should try to avoid rationalizing.
“But,” you may be saying, “it is good to do nice things for other people. If you do something that helps them, or that they like, or that benefi ts the world, what difference does motivation make? If, for whatever reason, the table saw makes Mr. Smith’s wife happy, that’s what counts.”
Now, there is something to be said for this argument, because it is good to make people happy. But whether Mr. Smith’s wife is happy or not, there has been a confusion in his thinking, a fallacy. And it is a common fallacy indeed. Obviously, most instances of rationalizing are not as blatant as Mr. Smith’s, but people frequently deceive themselves as to their true motives.
Rationalizing need not be selfi sh, either. Let’s say a former oilman is elected governor of a state that produces oil. He may act in what at some level he thinks are the best interests of his state—when in fact he is motivated by a desire to help the oil industry. (Incidentally, you can’t just assume he would do this.) To the extent that he is deceiving himself about his true motivation, he is rationalizing. But this isn’t selfish rationalizing; his actions don’t benefi t him personally.
Rationalizing, then, involves an element of self-deception, but otherwise it isn’t necessarily devious. However, some people encourage others to ratio- nalize because they themselves stand to benefi t in some way. “Hey, Smith,” his buddy Jones says to him. “That’s a fi ne idea! Really creative. Your wife will really like a saw. Maybe you could build a boat for her, and you and I could go fi shing.” Jones may or may not say this innocently: If he does, he, too, is guilty of rationalizing; if he doesn’t, he’s just cynical.
In the following passages, identify any fallacies discussed in the preceding sec- tion of the text (red herring/smoke screen; appeals to popularity, tradition, com- mon practice; rationalizing). There may be passages that contain no fallacy.
1. democrat: What do you think of your party’s new plan for Social Security?
republican: I think it is pretty good, as a matter of fact. democrat: Oh? And why is that? republican: Because you Democrats haven’t even offered a plan,
that’s why!
Exercise 6-2
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200 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
2. fred: I think we should just buy the new truck and call it a business expense so we can write it off on our taxes.
ethel: I don’t know, Fred. That sounds like cheating to me. We wouldn’t really use the truck very much in the business, you know.
fred: Oh, don’t worry about it. This kind of thing is done all the time. 3. A fi ctitious western governor: “Yes, I have indeed accepted $550,000 in
campaign contributions from power companies. But as I stand here before you, I can guarantee you that not one dime of that money has affected any decision I’ve made. I make decisions based on data, not on donors.”
4. They fi nally passed the immigration law. Did you see the latest poll? It says that over two-thirds of Americans believe it’s going to solve the immigration problem once and for all. It’s about time they did the right thing in Congress.
5. reporter cokie roberts: Mr. Cheney, aside from the legal issues that stem from the various United Nations resolutions, isn’t there an overrid- ing moral dimension to the suffering of so many Kurdish people in Iraq?
dick cheney: Well, we recognize that’s a tragic situation, Cokie, but there are tragic situations occurring all over the world.
—Adapted from an interview on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition
6. I’m going to use the textbook that’s on reserve in the library. I’ll have to spend more time on the campus, but it’s sure better than shelling out over a hundred bucks for one book.
7. The animal rights people shouldn’t pick on rodeos about animal treat- ment. If they’d come out and see the clowns put smiles on kids’ faces and see horses buck off the cowboys and hear the crowd go “ooh” and “ahh” at the bull riding, why, then, they’d change their minds.
8. You know, Selina, I’ve been thinking lately that we’ve been putting away money for our retirement for quite a while now, and since the economy seems to be recovering from the recession, I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape when we’re ready to retire—we’ll at least have enough to get by. Meanwhile, I’ve been looking at these new Ford trucks, and they really come with everything these days, even GPS and satellite radio. And if we put a portion of our income toward purchase of a new truck, it would be a sort of investment in the future itself, you know?
9. What’s wrong with socialism? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with socialism. Americans don’t like it, is what’s wrong with socialism.
10. Should I spend time doing more of these logic exercises when I could be outside playing golf? Well, one thing is for sure. Doing one or two more exercises won’t make a difference to my grade, but playing golf will make a difference to my health.
TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT Let’s say you get tired of the people upstairs stomping around late at night, and so, to retaliate, you rent a tow truck and deposit their car in the river. From an emotional standpoint, you’re getting even. From a reasoning standpoint, you’re committing the fallacy known as “two wrongs make a right.” It’s a fal-
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TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT 201
lacy because wrongful behavior on someone else’s part doesn’t convert wrong- ful behavior on your part into rightful behavior any more than illegal behavior on someone else’s part converts your illegal activity into legal activity. If an act is wrong, it is wrong. Wrong acts don’t cross-pollinate such that one comes out shorn of wrongfulness.
However, there is a well-known and somewhat widely held theory known as retributivism, according to which it is acceptable to harm some- one in return for a harm he or she has done to you. But we must distinguish legitimate punishment from illegitimate retaliation. A fallacy clearly occurs when we consider a wrong to be justifi cation for any retaliatory action, as would be the case if you destroyed your neighbors’ car because they made too much noise at night. It is also a fallacy when the second wrong is directed at someone who didn’t do the wrong in the fi rst place—a brother or a child of the wrongdoer, for example. And it is a fallacy to defend doing harm to another on the grounds that that individual would or might do the same to us. This would happen, for example, if we didn’t return excess change to a salesclerk on the grounds that “if the situation were reversed,” the clerk wouldn’t have given us back the money.
On the other hand, it isn’t a fallacy to defend an action on the grounds that it was necessary to prevent harm from befalling oneself; bopping a mugger to prevent him from hurting you would be an instance. To take another example, near the end of World War II, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities, killing tens of thousands of civilians. Politicians, historians, and others have argued that the bombing was justifi ed because it helped end the war and thus prevented more casualties from the fi ghting, including the deaths of more Americans. People have long disagreed on whether the argu- ment provides sufficient justifi cation for the bombings, but there is no dis- agreement about its being a real argument and not empty rhetoric.
Argument Diagram (1) The people upstairs keep making noise late at night and (2) it bothers me so (3) I have the right to rent a tow truck and deposit their car in the river.
(1) The people upstairs keep making noise late at night. (2) It bothers me. (3) Therefore I have the right to rent a tow truck and deposit
their car in the river.
Fallacies run the gamut from attempts to stir up emotion to attempts to dis- tract us from a subject entirely. In this chapter we’ve covered a selection of fal- lacies that are based on appeals to our emotions as well as several others that, while they have a psychological aspect, are less emotion-based.
Fallacies that appeal to emotion:
Recap
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202 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
■ Argument from outrage ■ Scare tactics ■ Argument by force ■ Argument from pity ■ Argument from envy ■ Apple polishing ■ Guilt trip ■ Wishful thinking ■ Peer pressure “argument” ■ Groupthink fallacy ■ Nationalism
Other fallacies discussed in this chapter don’t invoke emotions directly but are closely related to emotional appeals. These include
■ Red herring/smoke screen ■ Appeal to popularity ■ Appeal to common practice ■ Appeal to tradition ■ Rationalization ■ Two wrongs make a right
In all these specimens, there is something one might call a “premise” and something one might call a “conclusion,” but the “premise” either fails to support the conclusion or “supports” some tangential claim. In any case, a mistake in reasoning has been made; a fallacy has been committed.
In the exercises that follow, we ask you to name fallacies, and your instructor may do the same on an exam. (At the end of Chapter 7, there are more exercises that refer back to the fallacies in this chapter.)
Exercise 6-3 Working in groups, invent a simple, original, and clear illustration of each type of fallacy covered in this chapter. Then, in the class as a whole, select the illus- trations that are clearest and most straightforward. Go over these illustrations before doing the remaining exercises in this chapter, and review them before you take a test on this material.
Exercise 6-4 Answer the following questions and explain your answers.
1. A brand of toothpaste is advertised as best selling. How relevant is that to whether to buy the brand?
Additional Exercises
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EXERCISES 203
2. A brand of toothpaste is best selling. How relevant is that to whether to buy that brand?
3. An automobile is a best-seller in its class. How relevant is that to whether to buy that kind of automobile?
4. A movie is a smash hit. Would that infl uence your opinion of it? Should it?
5. Your friends are all Republicans. Would that infl uence your decision about which party to register with? Should it?
6. Your friends are all Democrats. Would that infl uence what you say about Democrats to them? Should it?
7. Your friend’s father wrote a novel. How relevant is that to whether you should say nice things about the book to your friend?
8. Your friend’s mother is running for office. How relevant is that to whether you should vote for her?
9. Your own mother is running for office. How relevant is that to whether she will do a good job? To whether you should vote for her?
10. Movie critic Roger Ebert gives a movie a “thumbs-up” and calls it one of the best of the year. How relevant is this to whether you should go see the movie?
Exercise 6-5 Which of the following do you believe? Which of the following do you really have evidence for? Which of the following do you believe on an “everyone knows” basis? Discuss your answers with other members of your class.
1. Small dogs tend to live longer than large dogs.
2. Coffee has a dehydrating effect.
3. Most people should drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
4. If you are thirsty, it means you are already dehydrated.
5. Rape is not about sex; it’s about aggression.
6. Marijuana use leads to addiction to harder drugs.
7. The news media are biased.
8. You get just as much ultraviolet radiation on a cloudy day as on a sunny day.
9. If you don’t let yourself get angry every now and then, your anger will build up to the exploding point.
10. Carrots make you see better.
11. Reading in poor light is bad for your eyes.
12. Sitting too close to the TV is bad for your eyes.
13. Warm milk makes you sleepy.
14. Covering your head is the most effective way of staying warm in cold weather.
15. Smoking a cigarette takes seven minutes off your life.
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204 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
16. Government-run health care management is more (or less—choose one) expensive than private-run health care management.
Exercise 6-6 For each of the passages that follow, determine whether fallacies are present and, if so, whether they fi t the categories described in this chapter.
1. Boss to employee: “I’ll be happy to tell you why this report needs to be fi nished by Friday. If it isn’t ready by then, you’ll be looking for another job. How’s that for a reason?”
2. Mother: “I think he has earned an increase in his allowance. He doesn’t have any spending money at all, and he’s always having to make excuses about not being able to go out with the rest of his friends because of that.”
3. Mother to father: “You know, I really believe that our third grader’s friend Joe comes from an impoverished family. He looks to me as though he doesn’t get enough to eat. I think I’m going to start inviting him to have dinner at our house once or twice a week.”
4. Statistics show that fl ying is much safer than driving. So why put your family at risk? This summer, travel the safe way: Fly Fracaso Airlines!
5. One political newcomer to another: “I tell you, Sam, you’d better change those liberal views of yours. The general slant toward conservatism is obvi- ous. You’ll be left behind unless you change your mind about some things.”
6. If you ask me, I think breaking up with Anton is a big mistake. Have you forgotten how he stuck by you last year when you really needed somebody? Is this how you repay that kind of devotion?
7. one fan: The fi eld goal has become too big a part of the game. I think it would be more reasonable to change it from a 3-point play to a 2-point play. That would make advancing the ball more important, which is as it should be.
another fan: Oh, come on. Field goals have always been three points; it’s just silly to think of changing a part of the game that’s been around for so long.
8. Student speaker: “Why, student fees have jumped by more than 300 per- cent in just two years! This is outrageous! The governor is working for a balanced budget, but it’ll be on the backs of us students, the people who have the very least to spend! It seems pretty clear that these increased student fees are undermining higher education in this state. Anybody who isn’t mad about this just doesn’t understand the situation.”
9. “What? You aren’t a Cornhuskers fan? Listen, around here everybody is for the Huskers! This is Nebraska!”
10. They need to understand that it’s okay for the good guys to have nuclear weapons and it’s not okay for the bad guys to have them. And the U.S.A. is one of the good guys, you see. The U.S. is always going to do the right thing by these weapons, and we can’t trust most of the rest of the world to do that. There’s your nuclear arms policy in a nutshell.
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EXERCISES 205
Exercise 6-7 For each of the following, determine whether one of the lettered rhetorical devices or fallacies covered in Chapters 5 and 6 occurs in the passage. There may be items that do not contain such devices or fallacies, so be careful!
1. Letter to the editor: “Your food section frequently features recipes with veal, and your ads say veal is a wholesome, nutritious food. Well, I have a different opinion of veal. Do you know how it comes to be on your plate? At birth, a newborn calf is separated from its mother, placed in a dark enclosure, and chained by its neck so it cannot move freely. This limits muscular development so that the animal is tender. It is kept in the dark pen until the day it is cruelly slaughtered.” a. scare tactics d. wishful thinking b. argument from pity e. no device or fallacy c. common practice
2. Listen, Bob. I’ve met with the rest of our neighbors on the block, and we all agree that your yard really looks terrible. It’s embarrassing to all of us. Our conclusion is that you ought to do something about it. a. common practice d. rationalizing b. use of euphemism e. no device or fallacy c. use of dysphemism
3 . Former presidential chief of staff John Sununu was charged with using Air Force executive jets for frequent trips to vacation spots. In a letter to a newsmagazine, a writer observed, “What’s all the fuss about? If every- body is doing it, why get excited about Sununu?”
a. loaded question d. common practice b. stereotyping e. no device or fallacy c. argument from outrage
4. I was thinking: Our newspaper boy has not missed a day all year, and he always throws our paper right up here near the front door. I think I’m going to leave him an extra-large tip this Christmas. I know people who do that kind of work don’t make a lot of money, and I’m sure he can use it. a. downplayer d. argument from pity b. stereotyping e. no device or fallacy c. innuendo
5. Hey, watch what you say about my car. You won’t see many that old around anymore; it’s a real classic. a. rhetorical explanation d. use of euphemism b. hyperbole e. no device or fallacy c. argument from pity
6. Despite all the fancy technology that went into Sam’s new car, it still gets a mere 29 miles per gallon. a. use of dysphemism d. downplayer b. weaseler e. no device or fallacy c. rationalizing
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206 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
7. Text messaging teaches people to misspell and adopt the crudest style of writing possible. It’s like an advanced degree in Bonehead English. a. rationalizing d. argument from outrage b. rhetorical analogy e. no device or fallacy c. rhetorical explanation
8. Imagine yourself alone beside your broken-down car at the side of a coun- try road in the middle of the night. Few pass by, and no one stops to help. Don’t get caught like that. You need a No-Tel cellular telephone!
Which of the following best characterizes this passage?
a. The passage gives someone no reason for buying anything at all. b. The passage gives someone no reason for buying a cell phone. c. The passage gives someone no reason for buying a No-Tel cell phone. d. The passage gives someone a reason for buying a sawed-off shotgun for
the car.
Exercise 6-8 For each of the passages that follow, determine whether fallacies are present and, if so, whether they fi t the categories described in this chapter.
1. “Grocers are concerned about sanitation problems from beverage residue that Proposition 11 could create. Filthy returned cans and bottles— over 11 billion a year —don’t belong in grocery stores, where our food is stored and sold. . . . Sanitation problems in other states with similar laws have caused increased use of chemical sprays in grocery stores to combat rodents and insects. Vote no on 11.”
—Argument against Proposition 11, California ballot pamphlet
2. C’mon, George, the river’s waiting and everyone’s going to be there. You want me to tell ’em you’re gonna worry on Saturday about a test you don’t take ’til Tuesday? What’re people going to think?
3. attendant: I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t allow people to top off their gas tanks here in Kansas. There’s a state law against it, you know.
richard: What? You’ve got to be kidding! I’ve never heard of a place that stopped people from doing that!
4. One roommate to another: “I’m telling you, Ahmed, you shouldn’t take Highway 50 this weekend. In this weather, it’s going to be icy and danger- ous. Somebody slides off that road and gets killed nearly every winter. And you don’t even have any chains for your car!”
5. That, in sum, is my proposal, ladies and gentlemen. You know that I trust and value your judgment, and I am aware I could not fi nd a more astute panel of experts to evaluate my suggestion. Thank you.
6. jared: In Sweden, atheists and agnostics outnumber believers 2 to 1, and in Germany, less than half the population believes in God. Here in the United States, though, over 80 percent believe in God. I wonder what makes the United States so different.
alice: You’ve answered your own question. If I didn’t believe in God, I’d feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb.
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EXERCISES 207
7. One local to another: “I tell you, it’s disgusting. These idiot college stu- dents come up here and live for four years—and ruin the town—and then vote on issues that affect us long after they’ve gone. This has got to stop! I say, let only those who have a real stake in the future of this town vote here! Transient kids shouldn’t determine what’s going to happen to local residents. Most of these kids come from Philadelphia . . . let them vote there.”
8. Chair, Department of Rhetoric (to department faculty): “If you think about it, I’m certain you’ll agree with me that Mary Smith is the best candidate for department secretary. I urge you to join with me in recom- mending her to the administration. Concerning another matter, I’m now setting up next semester’s schedule, and I hope that I’ll be able to give you all the classes you have requested.”
9. nellie: I really don’t see anything special about Sunquist grapefruit. They taste the same as any other grapefruit to me.
nellie’s mom: Hardly! Don’t forget that your Uncle Henry owns Sun- quist. If everyone buys his fruit, you may inherit a lot of money some day!
10. “Don’t risk letting a fatal accident rob your family of the home they love—on the average, more than 250 Americans die each day because of accidents. What would happen to your family’s home if you were one of them?
“ Your home is so much more than just a place to live. It’s a commu- nity you’ve chosen carefully . . . a neighborhood . . . a school district . . . the way of life you and your family have come to know. And you’d want your family to continue sharing its familiar comforts, even if suddenly you were no longer there. . . . Now, as a Great Western mortgage cus- tomer, you can protect the home you love. . . . Just complete the Enroll- ment Form enclosed for you.”
—Insurance company brochure
11. “You’ve made your mark and your scotch says it all.” —Glen Haven Reserve
12. Dear Senator Jenkins, I am writing to urge your support for higher salaries for state
correctional facility guards. I am a clerical worker at Kingsford Prison, and I know whereof I speak. Guards work long hours, often giving up weekends, at a dangerous job. They cannot afford expensive houses or even nice clothes. Things that other state employees take for granted, like orthodontia for their children and a second car, are not possibilities on their salaries, which, incidentally, have not been raised in fi ve years. Their dedication deserves better.
Very truly yours, . . . 13. her: Listen, honey, we’ve been dating for how long now? Years! I think
it’s time we thought seriously about getting married. him: Right, ummm, you know what? I think it’s time we went shopping
for a new car! What do you say to that?
14. There are very good reasons for the death penalty. First, it serves as a deterrent to those who would commit capital offenses. Second, it is just
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208 CHAPTER 6: MORE RHETORICAL DEVICES
and fair punishment for the crime committed. Third, reliable opinion polls show that over 70 percent of all Americans favor it. If so many peo- ple favor it, it has to be right.
15. first idahoan: I’ll tell you, I think Senator Creighton has done a fi ne job of representing our state. He’s brought a lot of federal money here, and he’s on the right side of most of the social issues we care about here.
second idahoan: Aw, come on, man. They caught the guy trying to pick up another man in an airport restroom. Throw him out on the street where he belongs!
16. Frankly, I think the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and the Wildlife Fund will put my money to better use than my niece Alison and her husband would. They’ve wasted most of the money I’ve given them. So I think I’m going to leave a substantial portion of my estate to those organizations instead of leaving it all to my spendthrift relatives.
17. “The president’s prosecution of the War on Terror is being handled exactly right. He wasn’t elected to do nothing!”
18. Student to teacher: “I’ve had to miss several classes and some quizzes because of some personal matters back home. I know you have a no- make-up policy, but there was really no way I could avoid having to be out of town; it really was not my fault.”
19. bud: So, here’s the deal. I’ll arrange to have your car “stolen,” and we’ll split the proceeds from selling it to a disposer. Then you fi le a claim with your insurance company and collect from it.
lou: Gee, this sounds seriously illegal and dangerous. bud: Illegal, yeah, but do you think this is the fi rst time an insurance
company ever had this happen? Why, they actually expect it—they even budget money for exactly this sort of thing.
20. Kibitzer, discussing the job Lamar Alexander did as secretary of education: “It was absolutely clear to me that Alexander was not going to do any good for American education. He was way too involved in money-making schemes to give any attention to the job we were paying him for. Do you know that back before he was appointed, he and his wife invested fi ve thousand dollars in some stock deal, and four years later that stock was worth over eight hundred thousand dollars? Tell me there’s nothing fi shy about a deal like that!”
21. My opponent, the evolutionist, offers you a different history and a dif- ferent self-image from the one I suggest. While I believe that you and I are made in the image of God and are only one step out of the Garden of Eden, he believes that you are made in the image of a monkey and are only one step out of the zoo.
22. Recently, two Colorado lawmakers got into a shouting match when one of them marched into a news conference the other was holding in opposi- tion to same-sex marriage. Rep. Jim Welker had called the news confer- ence to solicit support for a constitutional amendment to bar gays and lesbians from marrying. Rep. Angie Paccione objected, saying, “We have over 700,000 Coloradans without health care; how could we possibly say gay marriage is more important than health care?”
Welker then responded, “Gay marriage will open a Pandora’s box. Where do you draw the line? A year and a half ago a lady in India married
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EXERCISES 209
her dog!” Welker was referring to the marriage of a 9-year-old girl to a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off an evil spell.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Paccione said. “Come on, Jim.” “That is true. That’s a fact,” Welker said. Paccione replied, “It’s not the same to have somebody marry a dog as
it is to have two loving people get married. Come on.” 23. What makes you think I should put a note on this guy’s car? Do you
think for a minute he’d have left a note on mine if he’d put a dent in it?
Writing Exercises 1. Find an example of a fallacy in a newspaper editorial or opinion magazine
(substitute an example from an advertisement or a letter to the editor only as a last resort and only if your instructor permits it). Identify the issue and what side of the issue the writer supports. Explain why the pas- sage you’ve chosen does not really support that position—that is, why it involves a fallacy. If the writer’s claims do support some other position (possibly on a different, related issue), describe what position they do support.
2. In 1998, the police in Harris County, Texas, responded to a false report about an armed man who was going crazy. They did not fi nd such an indi- vidual; but when they entered the home of John Geddes Lawrence, they found him and another man, Tyron Garner, having sex. Both men were arrested and found guilty of violating a Texas law that criminalizes homo- sexual sex acts. The men challenged their conviction, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2003. A district attorney from the county argued, “Texas has the right to set moral standards of its people.”
Do you agree or disagree with the district attorney’s statement? Defend your answer in a one-page essay written in class. Your instructor will have other members of the class read your essay to see if they can fi nd your basic argument in the midst of any rhetoric you may have used. They also will note any fallacies that you may have employed.
3. Should there be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting desecration of the U.S. fl ag? In a one-page essay, defend a “yes” or “no” answer to the question. Your instructor will have other members of the class read your essay, following the instructions in Writing Exercise 2.
4. Listen to a talk radio program and make a note of any fallacies discussed in this chapter that you notice. Try to write down the exact words used in the program as well as the name of the fallacy you think was employed.
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