The Greatest Sin of All

Can you spot the two logical fallacies in this headline?

The first fallacy is easy to find.  Montini is not making an argument, He is making an accusation.  This is part of an Ad Hominem attack.  Rather than actually argue against Biggs' desire to open up the economy, he accuses him of having a death wish.    The second is a little more tricky.  Montini is committing the False Dilemma Fallacy.   Montini is (falsely) claiming that there are only two choices:  keep the country in its current state of lock down, or let everyone die.  So Andy Biggs is not advocating choices along a spectrum, he has a "death wish for citizens".

However these fallacies are not Montini's greatest sin.  Check out this parody from the Babylon Bee and then see my additional commentary below. 

Babylon Bee is national parody site.  They are mocking what liberals all over the country are saying.  Montini's column is simply a local version of a national theme.  He could be replaced with a bot--or an intern--who inserts local names into today's national leftist theme.   Sure, Montini has lost the ability to make a rational argument, but that's not the greater sin. 

The greater sin is that Montini has lost the ability to be original.  

 

 

 

  

Comments

[Paul R.]

Ed Montini needs to learn to code.

[Rep. John Kavanagh]

Good post. I would add a third logical fallacy to Montini's scorecard. That logical fallacy being the use of a "spin word."

Many words have positive and negative spin versions. Montini called Biggs a "politician" and politician is the negative spin version of elected official. By the way, the positive spin version of elected official is, you guessed it, public servant.

Propagandists such as Montini use these tactics all the time to trick and mislead people. I am glad you call him out. By the way, the greatest book about logical fallacies is "Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life" by Kahane. It is in its 13th printing. If I had my way, I would require all high school students to read it before graduating.