MORE INFORMAL FALLACY EXAMPLES

New Fallacy: Appeal to ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantiam). In this fallacy, a person argues that a proposition is true because there’s no evidence that it’s not true. This is an attempt to avoid providing evidence that a claim is true by shifting the burden to the other party. The burden of proof is always on the person making the positive claim. In the absence of sufficient evidence, the proper attitude toward a claim skepticism.

Identify the argument form, fallacy or fallacies involved. In some examples, more than one many apply.

1. Bush intervened militarily in the Middle East a lot while Obama didn't intervene much at all. So, I'd say that Trump should go for a happy medium : not as much as Bush but more than Obama, not that I know anything about foreign policy or the Middle East.

2. Ronette: Affirmative action is still necessary in order to compensate for past discrimination, which dramatically affects inter-generational wealth of African Americans and to combat unconscious bias. I have a list of psychological studies by elite institutions published in peer reviewed journals showing the effect of unconscious bias on screening job candidates. Would you like me to email it to you?

Richard: Of course you support Affirmative Action! As a black woman, you benefit from it more than anybody. Hey, I understand wanting to get your piece of the pie, but you’re not getting my slice! I have no interest in seeing your “studies.”

3. What's the right punishment for blasphemy? On the one side, some people demand the death penalty for blasphemy, but that seems to go a bit too far. On the other had, there are people who say here should be no penalty at all. So, correct solution, therefore, is a moderate fine for blasphemers, like a steep speeding ticket that will make them think twice about doing it again.

4. Bill: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a national security expert, decorated West Point graduate and war veteran, was on that call with Donald Trump and the Ukrainian President. He testified before Adam Schiff’s congressional committee that he thought what Trump said on the call was inappropriate. I don’t need to see the transcript. The President should be impeached!

Sally: Michael Flynn was a national security expert and a decorated war veteran, and you didn't seem to respect his opinion when you claimed he was guilty of a crime for talking to the Russians about what policies to expect from the incoming administration.

5. Jane: Murder is a mental health issue. Well-adjusted people don’t commit murders.

Bill: It seems that “well-adjusted” people commit murders for all kinds of reasons: jealousy, revenge, money, power. Why do you say it’s a mental health issue?

Jane: Because only a mentally ill person would ever take the life of another human being.

6. Fred: Looks like another impeachment attempt has failed. Let’s see, there was Russia, Stormy Daniels, his taxes, the emoluments clause, Ukraine… Are you ready to admit that the President has done nothing wrong?

Roberta: He should still be impeached.

Fred: On what grounds?

Roberta: I don’t know, but I’m sure he’s guilty of something! Prove he's innocent!

7. “So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching!” - Donald Trump

8. Beth: Did you hear that a gay rights activist from Portland who raised over $500,000 for Obama's re-election campaign was just indicted for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy with his boyfriend in a hotel? You voted for Obama twice. Do you regret voting for that man now? You’re not going to vote Democrat again next year are you?

Margie: At least he wasn’t being supported by David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, like the current President!

9. The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,  but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite [Bathsheba - J.B.] to be your own.’" - 2 Samuel 12: 1-10

10. Satirical Headline: Emperor Palpatine, austere religious scholar, dies at 87.

11. Bill: G.W. Bush has been taking shots at President Trump lately in the press. Trump hit him back today and said, 'The decision to go to war in Iraq was one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of politics.' I have to say that for once I agree with the President. We spent a trillion dollars over there and things are still a total mess.

Sally: Why would you ever listen to anything that blowhard has to say? He’s a racist, a sexist and a fascist!

12. Editorial headline from the Washington Examiner: The Republicans who "occupied" the SCIF are “the antifa of Capitol Hill.”

13. Bill: Hillary slammed your boy Trump for losing a billion dollars in his businesses. What kind of genius loses a billion dollars? I guess he didn’t master "The Art of the Deal."

Dwight: Oh yeah, well guess who is about to lose over a billion dollars in a failed election attempt?

14. My plan says we’re going to put teachers back in the classrooms, construction workers back to work… Tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for hiring veterans, tax cuts if you give your worker a raise. That’s my plan. Then you got [the Republican's] plan which is ‘let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance’… So far I’m feeling better about my plan. - Obama Campaign Speech, Oct 17, 2011.

15. Bill: So you believe in "abortion rights"? The abortion movement was started by Margaret Sanger, and she was a racist who wanted to keep minorities from having babies! She was also part of the eugenics movement and wanted to keep "defective" people from breeding! Abortion is racist!

Sally: Oh yeah? Well, you're a man! You can't get pregnant. What gives you the right to say anything about abortion?

16. Peter: How do I know I can trust the Bible?

Lee: The Bible is the Word of God.

Peter: But how do I know that?

Lee: “Let’s consult God’s word on the subject. It says right here in 2 Timothy 3:16 that ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.’ The Bible is remarkably clear on the subject, don’t you think?”

17. Trump's tweets are extremely irritating to the public be because they rub a lot of Americans the wrong way.

18. Professor: Democracies don't start wars. That’s one of their advantages.

Student: The City State of Athens was arguably the first democracy and, as an imperial power, started many wars with its neighbors, most notably Sparta.

Professor: Well, Athens wasn't a true democracy.

19. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:15-22

20. Erica: I like what Katie Hill had to say about the health care crisis in this country. Her husband Kenny suffered from a collapsed lung right before her wedding. They started out their marriage with $200,000 in medical debt! They we were able to move in with his parents while they got on their feet, but a lot of people don’t have that kind of family support to fall back on.

Julian: Haven’t you heard? She just resigned in disgrace after being caught in a “throuple” with her husband and a 22 year-old female staffer.

Erica: No, I hadn’t heard. That’s too bad, but as I was saying, I think she made a really good point about people without insurance. If you get into a spot where you need life-saving medical treatment, it can ruin your credit and put you under crushing debt for years. Something needs to be done about that.

Julian: Check these photos. Here’s a picture of her cavorting around in the nude, brushing her girlfriend’s hair and toking on a bong! See that iron cross tattoo? That’s a Nazi symbol! And get this: she dumped her husband “Kenny” and her girlfriend for another man - her campaign manager! Apart from the immorality, it’s against federal law for a member of Congress to have sex with their staff, and she’s doing it with two of them! Why would you ever listen to anything that woman has to say about health care?

21. How do I know there’s a God? No matter how hard the atheistic philosophers have tried, they haven’t once come up with a definitive proof that he doesn’t exist.

22. Every modern industrialized country has government healthcare. Medicare for all!

23. Civil Rights Activist circa 1960: Justice demands full civil rights for African Americans!

Southern White "Moderate": Let’s not get too extreme. You activists want full integration, black and white going to the same schools, sitting next to one another at lunch counters, using the same restroom, drinking from the same water fountain. But the extremists on the other side want full separation of races, even if it means black people have to sit in the back of the bus and are stuck in inferior schools or the worst table in the restaurant, right next to the kitchen.That’s why I support separate but equal public accommodations, like it says in Plessy v. Ferguson.