51 Fallacies: Activities and Resources
Lynn Meade
Examples of Ad Hominem Fallacy
King of Bain is a reference to presidential candidate Mitt Romney
Flackcheck.org. How the King of Bain employed logical fallacy “post hoc ergo propter hoc.” Annenberg Public Policy Center. http://politics.flackcheck.org/how-king-of-bain-employed-logical-fallacy-post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc/
“And for eight straight years George Bush hasn’t displayed the slightest interest in anything we care about…Poor George…he can’t help it…he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.” Ann Richards (D-TX) at Democratic National Convention 1988.
Colburn Classroom. (2019). Simpsons logical fallacies: Ad Hominem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMmXTVOjBY Standard YouTuve License.
Examples of Slippery Slope Fallacy
- If we pass laws against fully automatic weapons, then it won’t be long before we pass laws on all weapons, and then we will begin to restrict other rights, and finally, we will end up living in a communist state. Thus, we should not ban fully automatic weapons.
- Allow abortion in the first trimester and it will end in infanticide.
- “There is … a radical element, a homosexual agenda that wants to redefine what marriage is. They want to say that a marriage not only is one man and one woman but it is two men or it is two women. What logical reason is there to keep us from stopping expansion of that definition to include three people or an adult and a child, or any other odd combination that we want to have? … and it does not even have to be limited to human beings by the way. I mean it could be anything. … There is no reason why we cannot just completely erase whatever boundaries that currently exist on the definition of marriage and say it is a free-for-all, anything goes. Steve Largent, Republican House of Representatives.
Yones, S. (2012). TacoBell Waffle Taco TV Commercial Slippery Slope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwB7-ryD5PE Standard YouTube License
Examples of NonSequitur
Colburn Classroom (20190. Simpson’s logical fallacies: Non-Sequitur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2TLclCH6OA Standard YouTube License
Examples of Faulty Analogy
- We have pure food and drug laws; why can’t we have laws to keep movie-makers from giving us filth ?”
- “‘Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the internet. The internet should not operate at the speed of government. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
- If guns cause murders,” then cutlery causes obesity, cars cause accidents, and paper cause bad laws.
Mike Huckabee (R) in an op-ed called “American Needs a Commander in Chief, Not an Obsessed meteorologist said, “Maybe (President Obama) would take ISIS seriously if he discovered they didn’t recycle.
Really, Gay Marriage is like 911 ?
“(Gay Marriage Approval) This is an issue just like 9-11 […] We didn’t decide we wanted to fight the war on terrorism because we wanted to. It was brought to us. And if not now, when? When the supreme courts in all the other states have succumbed to the Massachusetts version of the law?” Rick Santorum (R-PA), Republican Senator
Examples of Either-Or Fallacy
“We shouldn’t support immigrants or give them access to social services and free things. After all, why should we help immigrants when there are homeless Americans on the streets?”
Examples of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
This website page, Spurious Correlations is dedicated to charts with spurious correlations. My favorite is number of people who drowned by falling into a pool correlates with Films Nicolas Cage appeared in.
Argumentics (2010). Post hoc ergo propter hoc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJUvFG8gbE Standard Youtube License.
Megamasterdrive (2012). The Simpsons anti-tiger rock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSVqLHghLpw Standard YouTube License.
PBS Idea Channel (2014). Five Fallacies Idea Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb-h0sXkH4 Standard YouTube License.
PBS Idea Channel (2014). Even more fallacies Idea Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybOvddwpJAg Standard YouTube License.
References
