Logical fallacies: An epidemic exposed.

One of the few useful skills they teach in public schools is how to spot and avoid logical fallacies.

A logical fallacy simply put is a conclusion or argument based on faulty reasoning, faulty facts or diversionary tactics.

When I first learned about these fallacies it was like a revelation. Pretty much 90% of everything I had been told up to that point in my life was based on bullshit arguments. I had to try to sort things out in my head.

Just because someone uses a logical fallacy doesn't mean that the conclusion is wrong..even a blind hog can find an acorn once in a while.

Logical fallacies are sneaky little fuckers that easily worm their way into your brain if you aren't paying close attention or if you already have a preconceived notion on the topic.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

I'll give the type of fallacy, an example, and why the bullshit alarms should be going off.

Ad Hominem: Attacking the man instead of the argument.
Example: Newt Gingrich said Obama had no real leadership experience. Gingrich cheated on his wife, therefore Gingrich has no business talking about Obama
What do Gingrich's marital problems have to do with his political expertise?

Appeal to Authority: When someone is used as an illegitmate authority.
Example: Bill Maher said that American soldiers are terrorists because they killed 650,000 Iraqi civilians. So we must immediately pull out of Iraq and put Bush and Cheney on trial for war crimes.
What does Bill Maher know? He is a comedian, not someone on the front lines qualified to determine who is to blame for these alleged deaths.

Appeal to belief: Everyone knows it's true so it must be.
Example: Everyone knows that Republicans only protect big business and are always trying to screw the little guy, so Republicans are bad.
Such sweeping statements are very common but are very hard to prove.

Appeal to common practice: Everyone does it so it must be ok.
Example:The store forgot to charge me for some of my groceries and I didn't say anything..but it's ok because most people wouldn't mention it either.
Just because people do immoral things doesn't make it right.

Appeal to Emotion
Example: Hillary's 3:00am phone call commercial.
Wouldn't it be scary if Obama was in charge during an international crisis?
Instead of saying WHY Obama shouldn't be in charge of our Armed forces she uses fear to manipulate her audience.

Appeal to pity
Examples: We really need to Vote for Obama because blacks have been short changed in this country for way too long.
We should vote for McCain because he was tortured by the sadistic gooks for 5 years.
Why should we vote for someone just because we feel bad about what they went through?

Appeal to ridicule:
Example: Why should I support the Bush tax plan? That idiot can't even say the word nuclear properly.
Uses mockery in place of evidence.

Gamblers fallacy: When something happens too many times a change is due.
Example:I'm going over to that slot machine..it hasn't paid anyone in like 5 hours so it's due to hit big!
These assumptions are based on superstition rather than the laws of probability.

Biased Sample:

Example Gallup polls indicate that 78% of voters are choosing Barack Obama They never mentioned that these polls were taken in West side Chicago

In conclusion: The old adage: believe half of what you see and none of what you hear is still a good rule of thumb. News reporters, politicians, pundits and writers are going to use these fallacies to try to get you to believe them. Look at things critically and you can find the truth buried somewhere..maybe