Need fallacies!

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So for my philosophy class, I need to find and identify 10 fallacies in the world around me. I thought I'd turn to NES, since we all watch closely and actually pay attention to what we're hearing in the news etc, and we know better than to take it at face value. I thought to myself, this is the perfect group of people to help me with this.

Here's the assignment:

We are surrounded at all times by a variety of groups that want to sway our opinions for any number of reasons. These interested parties mix fact and fallacy in their quest to gain our vote, our business, or our approval. It has been the goal of this class to show you how to separate fact from fallacy, and how to make tight, irrefutable arguments of your own. Now it is time for you to find fallacious reasoning in the world around you.

I want you to find and identify 10 fallacies in the world around you.
Requirements:
· Tell me the issue (what the article, commercial, political piece, or whatever is trying to say/prove).
· Tell me which fallacy is involved and how it is involved. (feel free to explain)
· Include a copy of the offending piece (the whole piece, with the fallacy marked in some way).




There's more to it, but I obviously will be doing the rest of it. I just need your input FINDING the fallacies themselves. I assume many of you will know them off the top of your head, so I'm not asking you to do any work here, or "do my homework," just input on fallacies you know if you have any. I have a feeling that a few of you might have too much fun with this... :p And keep the wiseass comments to yourself if you have them. I'm not in the mood. Just seeing if anyone can help me, that's all.
 
Fallacy: AR-15's are used by criminals for more than a tiny fraction (1%?) of crimes in the USA.

It's hard to pin down this one, because the gun control nuts will never come out with even a ballpark estimate of the use of "military looking" rifles in crimes. They think it's obvious that they are the biggest threat to public safety that there is today.
 
You will not see your taxes go up by a single dime.

As a candidate in 2008, the king said, "I can make a firm pledge" that "no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

We're going to bend the cost curve....actually, can't argue...they bent it UP.
 
The ones off the top of my head:

1. There is good debt and bad debt
2. Fats (in food) are dangerous (controversial I know, but I am an Atkins man)
3. Banks paid back what they owed us from the bailout.
4. The steroid era in baseball is over
 
"government is a force of good" Do the math, governments have slaughtered 100M+ in the past 100 years are responsible for most wars, have experimented, tortured, burned and oppressed people. The US is the exception and our government has some serious blights on its record as well.

"stranger danger" (you may be too young to remember this, but the FBI and local PD's went nuts nationally with this idea that kids could be kidnapped by a stranger at any moment in the 80's. Eventually, someone pointed out that most abductions are "known to" the child.

"Constitution grants rights"

"Nazi's weren't socialists - the polar opposite of communists - capitalist and conservative" (while it's true that Communism and Socialism were competing at the time in Germany, The National Socialist German Workers Party was in fact quite socialist. They imposed price controls, wage controls, effectively nationalized the unions and held tight control of who could own which business and buy and sell to whom, etc... They were only "right" of the Communists in Germany competing for power in the 20's and 30's.

"The US was founded as a Democracy" (actually a Constitutional Republic)

"The British Invaded" (sadly, many people think some variation of a "foreign government" attempted to impose its will on UHMERICA! No, the colonists were British Subjects and up until the Declaration of Independence would have told you so.

"2A is a militia right" (no, it is an expression of an individual right that was well established at the time and the comment about militias was to encourage the new government to accept this limitation on its power because otherwise it would not be able to raise an effective army). Besides, "the militia" was all able bodied males 18-45 (and they accepted volunteers outside this spec) who were expected to arm and supply themselves when called.
 
The Democrats want peace.
The Republicans want to cut spending
I support the 2A, but....
The Red Jacket Girl is hot
Mitt Romney will win in 2012
Obama has created jobs
Unions support the middle class.
Lizzy Warren is an Indian
Illegals arent illegal.
 
GAH I'm watching the lecture for this week (it's an online course) and he just had a video with Feinstein arguing for the assault ban. I just had to watch that for SCHOOL. I feel dirty.

Also, great examples here, keep em coming. Thanks to everyone who's commenting!!!
 
Obama was born in Hawaii

There's no agenda to disarm Americans

This country can run on "green energy".

Welfare is the answer to America's socioeconomic problems.

The U.S. economy is not going to collapse

Theres five fallacies for you.
 
I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky.

Hillary is a woman.

America, land of the free.

This won't even hurt at all.

Obama is the smartest POTUS evah.

Trust me, I'm not like the others.
 
"weapons of war have gotten more terrible":
The percentage of the total human population even involved in war, much less killed or injured has dropped dramatically as weapons have gotten "more horrible" Genghis killed more than 10% of the total human population in a very short period with "primitive" weapons.

"Treasuries are the safest investment there is":
Treasuries are not an investment at all, they are future tax on the population. Principle and interest are paid out of future taxation, not any underlying creation of wealth. A corporate bond is used to expand the business which actually creates wealth and from the profits generate, the bond principle and interest are paid back. Treasuries principle and interest are paid back via taxation of future incomes. No new wealth is created.

Along with that:
"I paid into Social Security, that is my money":
1. See above, your payments to SS purchased Treasuries, your money is gone. It was used to pay out SS benefits and pay for other government programs in the past.
2. As people live longer, they are drawing out more than they paid into SS.

"banks and medical care are breaking down because of unfettered capitalism":
1. Both systems have been HEAVILY regulated since the Depression. The markets exclude new players (Anti-trust: market exclusion), prices are fixed amongst competitors (Anti-Trust: price fixing/collusion) and pretty much every Anti-trust violation there is also appears regularly and IS REQUIRED BY LAW.

2. Both systems have been driven to failure by prior regulations or tax policies which squelched free market forces:
a. Wage Controls created "pre-tax benefits" which tied healthcare and retirement to employers which limits your choices. Lack of choice means lack of supply/demand communication to improve quality and reduce price
b. "Too Big To Fail" was a policy created with the Federal Reserve in 1913 in response to "The Rich Man's Panic" in 1906. This created an implicit (and sometimes explicit) promise that no amount of dumb risk taking by banks was too much.
c. Both Banks and Insurance companies have a VERY high bar to be allowed to exist in the first place. New companies cannot enter the markets to compete with the existing ones. Wal Mart attempted to become a bank and was refused. Doctors have attempted to create "quasi-insurance" programs for cost-effective primary care and they are threatened with regulatory action to shut them down because they are not a "blessed" insurance company.

Pretty much every aspect of our current economic and political system is a fallacy come to think of it... [laugh]
 
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"weapons of war have gotten more terrible":
The percentage of the total human population even involved in war, much less killed or injured has dropped dramatically as weapons have gotten "more horrible) Genghis killed more than 10% of the total human population in a very short period with "primitive" weapons.

"Treasuries are the safest investment there is":
Treasuries are not an investment at all, they are future tax on the population. Principle and interest are paid out of future taxation, not any underlying creation of wealth. A corporate bond is used to expand the business which actually creates wealth and from the profits generate, the bond principle and interest are paid back. Treasuries principle and interest are paid back via taxation of future incomes. No new wealth is created.

Along with that:
"I paid into Social Security, that is my money":
1. See above, your payments to SS purchased Treasuries, your money is gone. It was used to pay out SS benefits and pay for other government programs in the past.
2. As people live longer, they are drawing out more than they paid into SS.

"banks and medical care are breaking down because of unfettered capitalism":
1. Both systems have been HEAVILY regulated since the Depression. The markets exclude new players (Anti-trust: market exclusion), prices are fixed amongst competitors (Anti-Trust: price fixing/collusion) and pretty much every Anti-trust violation there is also appears regularly and IS REQUIRED BY LAW.

2. Both systems have been driven to failure by prior regulations or tax policies which squelched free market forces:
a. Wage Controls created "pre-tax benefits" which tied healthcare and retirement to employers which limits your choices. Lack of choice means lack of supply/demand communication to improve quality and reduce price
b. "Too Big To Fail" was a policy created with the Federal Reserve in 1913 in response to "The Rich Man's Panic" in 1906. This created an implicit (and sometimes explicit) promise that no amount of dumb risk taking by banks was too much.
c. Both Banks and Insurance companies have a VERY high bar to be allowed to exist in the first place. New companies cannot enter the markets to compete with the existing ones. Wal Mart attempted to become a bank and was refused. Doctors have attempted to create "quasi-insurance" programs for cost-effective primary care and they are threatened with regulatory action to shut them down because they are not a "blessed" insurance company.

Pretty much every aspect of our current economic and political system is a fallacy come to think of it... [laugh]

[thumbsup] [bow]
 
So, let me get this straight... You want me do to your home work? Drop the joint, turn off the hippiemusic, sit on your ass and do your research. I'm already done with college.
 
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