Logical Fallacies in the News, Part 1

No one laments the decline in critical thinking more than I do. But my appreciation of critical thinking forces me to examine that very sentence. Is it certifiably true that “no one” laments the decline “more than I do”? How can I possibly know that? Has a poll been taken…a study made? Is there a way of measuring my dismay vis-à-vis the dismay of others? Furthermore, has it been empirically proven, or is the decline in critical thinking merely conventional wisdom?
Those are all questions the truly critical mind should ask, but many among us don’t because so much of our communication is casual and spontaneous, and there’s simply no time to analyze everything we want to say in such “critical” detail because the conversation will simple pass us by. We can intellectually condemn the diminishment of critical thinking in our daily social intercourse, but the truth is--as much as we all want a lover with a slow hand--such intercourse is of the slam-bam-thank-you-ma’m kind by habit and necessity.  
As a result, logical fallacies, the alleged enemies of critical thought have now become the norm for how we think and communicate. Websites and books abound with aids to help us with our critical thinking, but what we really need is to be attuned to the enormous role logical fallacies play in all our lives, regardless of gender, race, religion and especially politics. As promised in a too-long-ago post, the Nob means to do all it can to lift our cultural awareness of logical fallacies, regardless of partisanship.
And with that, let’s begin with the lowest hanging fruit in the logical fallacy tree: the Ad Hominem attack. It's not only the lowest hanging fruit, but it's fresh as the morning headlines because we are being treated to the spectacle of two (ahem) world leaders directing ad hominem attacks at each other over the most serious issue ever to face mankind—total nuclear annihilation. But seriousness has never been an obstacle for North Korea’s Kim Jong-un or the US of A’s Donald Trump (roll over Abe Lincoln and give George Washington the blues). It started with Trump calling Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man" first in a tweet (natch) and then (hold onto your Peace Prize, Kofi Annan) in a major speech before the United Nations. In certain circumstances "Rocket Man" would not register as an insult. After all it comes from a worshipful Elton John song about astronauts; furthermore ace major league pitcher Roger Clemens was renowned as The Rocket. So, as always, context is everything. And in this case the context was Trump--as is his style (i.e., Crooked Hillary, Little Marco)--trying to demean an opponent. It was not intended to open serious negotiations about a dangerous global issue; it was intended to provoke an unstable immature man with awesome powers. So far--and lucky for the world--Kim Jong-un is so much like Trump that he responded in kind…not with a missile launch but with an ad hominem attack of his own. He called Trump a dotard. 
Such childish attacks are not limited to world leaders of course. Internet discourse is rampant with such attacks…right-wingers routinely dismiss lefties as “Libtards”; the lefty rejoinder of choice these days seems to be “Nazi”, which isn’t really an ad hominem attack on those who self-identify as Nazis, but is so for those who claim to merely be making a “free speech” case for racial supremacy, unaccountable law enforcement, and eliminating health care for millions of Americans.
Which brings us to the infamous and always dangerous (rhetorically dangerous anyway) Slippery Slope …the logical fallacy wherein it is argued that if one desirable thing does or does not happen it will lead to many related things that are undesirable. The example du jour is this one from Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina advancing his new health care bill, which will in fact eliminate health care for millions of Americans. Graham is is taking a wild ride down the slippery slope in defending his bill: "Here's the choice for America: socialism or federalism," Graham said. He warned that his ObamaCare repeal bill is "the only process available to stop a march toward socialism."
Anti-government Republicans have invoked the scare tactic of imminent socialism for decades. They used it when Social Security was introduced. They used it when Medicare was introduced. They’ve used it throughout their 8-year feckless war against Obamacare. How does the fallacy maintain any credibility after such policy initiatives have become such key threads of our social fabric? You’d have to ask the very stupid woman (ad hominem alert) who famously warned Democrats during the Obamacare debate to keep the government’s hands off her Medicare. Much of the success of logical fallacies relies on the gullibility or sheer ignorance of the target audience.
Oh, wait, add emotion and/or sentimentality to gullibility and ignorance as we consider the logical fallacy known as  Appeal to Emotion . Tom Price who, as a Georgia Congressman, lectured Washington loud and long about its wasteful ways has recently been caught in a scandal where he's been caught running up a $300,000 tab for taxpayers by flying in private planes since he was named Secretary of Health and Human Services. (That includes $25,000 for a flight from Washington DC to Philadelphia, a 2 ½ hour card ride). In his defense, Price’s office said these costs were necessary for him to stay in touch with “real Americans”. There are some “real Americans”, of course, who will buy such blatant bullshit even if they never stepped foot on a private plane themselves or attended the Aspen Ideals Festival with Price and a horde of elites. If they didn’t exist in vast numbers, we wouldn’t have had millions of them buy into the emotional appeal to Make America Great Again even though the appeal came from a certified Con Man and self admitted fraud. 

There is increasing evidence that a good part of our electorate and Facebook "friends" were bamboozled by an all-out assault by Russian agents seeking to interfere with and influence our politics. So it seems incumbent upon us to alert ourselves to the insidious impact of logical fallacies as it once was for us to duck and cover to protect ourselves from the impact of  nuclear attack. With that as a civic duty, The Nobby Works will be delving into the range of logical fallacies in posts to come. Bring the kids.