Fallacies 1-44 Review

"Before World War II, the U.S. government called the department that wages war the “War Department.” After the war, they decided to call it the “Defense Department.”"

• Talk double talk
• Talk in vague generalities
• Shift the ground
• A situation in which two people, groups, etc., are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them

"By the way, did you know that 78% of the students who read this guide raise their grade point average by 1.33 grade levels within two semesters? It’s even higher at your school!"

• Throw in some statistics
• Seek your vested interests
• Make sweeping, glittering generalizations
• Special Pleading Fallacy

"Divorce is rampant in America, Mary. I heard that 50% of marriages end in divorce within three years. So I've decided not to marry you because the odds are against us."

• Make sweeping, glittering generalizations
• Shift the burden of proof
• Shift the ground
• The passing score for all applicants is 80%, but foreigners must get 90% because English is not their native tongue.

"He had to heed the call of Mother Nature and go live in the woods."

• Treat abstract words and symbols as if they were real things
• Throw in some statistics
• Talk in vague generalities
• "We don't want the CIA to engage in assasination, torture, disinformation, or dirty tricks of any kind, but unfortunately, we are forced to use these tactices to defend freedom and democracy in the world."

"I don't care what the statistics tell us about the so-called abuse of prisoners, the real issue is whether or not we are going to be tough on crime. Save your sympathy for the victims of the crime, not the criminals."

• Oversimplify the issue
• Ignore the evidence
• Talk double talk
• "We don't want unemployment, but free enterprise demands it."

"No matter what my oponent says, I will keep thinking of nothing whatsoever will convince me of the validity of his view."

• Raise nothing but objections
• Rewrite history (have it your way)
• Seek your vested interests
• Manipulators use this to justify doing what is usually considered unethical.

"They have offered no good reason not to adopt our policy."

• Shift the ground
• Make your opponent look ridiculous ("Lost in the laugh")
• Talk in vague generalities
• Shift the ground

"We don't want the CIA to engage in assasination, torture, disinformation, or dirty tricks of any kind, but unfortunately, we are forced to use these tactices to defend freedom and democracy in the world."

• Use the hard-cruel-world argument
• Insist loudly on a minor point
• Seek your vested interests
• Make sweeping, glittering generalizations

"We don't want unemployment, but free enterprise demands it."

• Use the hard-cruel-world argument
• Burden of Proof Fallacy
• Shift the burden of proof
• Shift the ground

"When a citizen of a government we are in conflict with secretly gives us information about that enemy, we label it a “brave” and “courageous” act. When someone in our country tells our secrets to that same enemy, we indict that person as a “traitor."

• Talk double talk
• Use double standards
• Throw in some statistics
• Talk in vague generalities