I have been thinking about doing this blog for while more as a study of how fallacies are used in everyday argumentation. After seeing Dr. Bosworth's video on the need to arm women against all the misogynistic liberals, I felt that now would be as good a time as any.
A fallacy is a error in the logical reasoning process. Both sides of the gun control debate use fallacies and they lead to bad debate.
Here are some common fallacies used.
Slippery Slope: The slippery slope argument takes an event (or one that may happen) and jumps to a future inevitable consequence.
Anti-gun Control Example: If we enact background checks on guns, then it will lead to the ban of all weapons and the end of democracy.
Poisoning The Well: This fallacy occurs when you attempt to discredit what a person may later claim by presenting unfavorable information about the person.
Anti-gun Control Example: Obama is a commie that wants to be the next Hitler and take away all of our weapons. Whenever he speaks about the need for gun-control, he is just preparing us to be controlled by the UN.
False Dilemma: Also known as black and white thinking, this fallacy occurs when you claim that either X or Y is true, but both can not be true.
Anti-gun Control Example: If you don't support guns for everyone at every time, you must support the total ban on guns and our basic rights.
Straw Man Fallacy: A person creates an exaggerated position instead of the actual position presented by another.
Anti-gun Control Example: People that support background checks simply want to see people to not be armed against murders and killers.
Special Pleading: This occurs when a person applies a certain standard to others in a circumstance, but exempt themselves from the circumstance without adequate justification.
Annette Bosworth Example: Mike Rounds must be open and honest with the citizens about the scandals that occurred when he was in office. I am not going to talk about the land raffle scandal, the not paying of employees, or falsifying petitions because I am a woman fighting the establishment GOP political system and am attacked by the liberal media. (okay, this is not an anti-gun control, but it fits.)
Your post is very informative. I do agree with your points. Sometimes, people have a tendency to exaggerate and create fallacies just to gain the favor on their side in a debate. In my opinion, we need to look at things in the perspective of a third person and present more logical arguments, so that we can reach a compromise between two opposing sides.
ReplyDeleteHubert Singleton @ RDF Attorney