Fallacies and Those Who Glory in Them

Hyperbolic Bloviation

Our vastly superior and excessively sophisticated state education system regrettably does not teach its pupils how to think or reason.  Such antiquated nostrums as logic are seen as old fashioned or too restrictive for the free flights of fancy that can be attained by a spontaneously combusting intellect operating at the peak of the evolutionary chain of being.  

As a consequence there is a king tide of ignorance, particularly amongst the "educated". The poet e.e.cummings once "eulogized" the US President, Warren G. Harding as,  "The only man, woman, or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors".  Nowadays, almost everyone it seems in the chattering classes and the intelligentsia cannot put forward the most simple argument without an equal number of logical errors.   

In the recent horror of a deranged or evil person (the jury is still out on which) who attempted murder on a US Congresswoman and in the course of the crime successfully murdered six others, the chattering classes have been trying to find a scapegoat.  In order to pin blame on others--Sarah Palin, right wing extremists, the Tea Party movement, etc.--they found themselves breaking even the most fundamental precepts of logic.  Needless to say, most likely they are ignorant of  their ignorance.  

Arguably the most basic logical fallacy of all is that of "affirming the consequent".  Would you trust or respect the argument of a person who reasoned as follows

"Dogs have four legs;
"That animal over there has four legs;
"Therefore that animal is a dog"?  

Yup.  That's compelling.  Beyond reasonable doubt.  Now try this for size:

"Right-wing people have assassinated politicians; 
"Jared Lee Loughner (the Tucson assassin) attempted to assassinate a politician;
"Therefore, Jared Lee Loughner is a right-winger."

There are lots of permutations on the fallacy:

"Some right-wingers favor the gold standard;
"Jared Lee Loughner favors the gold standard;
"Therefore, Jared Lee Loughner is a right-winger."
(Hat Tip: Patterico)

As they say, ever let the truth get in the way of a "good" story.  In this case, never let reason stand in the way of hyperbolic excess.