“Everybody knows the opposition to voter ID isn’t a sincere concern for the civil liberties of the poor and the minorities; it’s to facilitate the stuffing of the ballot box in areas Democrats control completely.” When I came across this article this morning, I knew it was a perfect example of what I talked about yesterday in my blog about Oscar Wilde and George Carlin. Let’s take it apart. The first two words, “everyone knows,” are the first clue. It’s a clever trick. We don’t want to feel alone or not included in what the whole world thinks. It can be rewritten as “you know,” and it automatically includes you with the rest of the world. This crazy statement will show you what I mean – You know blondes always wear green fingernail polish. You’d probably laugh at that. Why? Because you don’t want to be included with the idiots who think blondes only wear green nail polish.
Moving on. “It’s to facilitate the stuffing of the boxes in areas Democrats control completely” – is a statement that contradicts itself. If the Democrats “completely” control an area, why would there be necessary to stuff the ballot box? However, following the first statement, which is meant to get you to agree to what they’re saying, you will tend to go along with their point of view. It also says something important about the writers or writer of the statement. The writers assume you either agree with them even before they make the statement or that you are too dumb to understand what they’re trying to do.
Not everyone has my background. I worked in a postdoctoral research lab, and I have also taught at the university level. I saw how easily the untrained can be confused or misled in a way that’s advantageous to the author of an article. That problem is well-recognized in the university community. In the freshman year, universities have a course in college-level writing because many later classes will have required student papers as the essential part of the course. The statement is made, “that you can’t trust everything you read” early in the class. They may not be labeled as such, but you were taught about logical fallacies. You can just search the term “logical fallacies” and see how easy they are to spot and how subtle they can be.
George Carlin made his living as a comedian using everyday logical fallacies for his comedy routines. The statement from this morning comes from the conservative wing of our politicians. They can also come from the liberals. People try to win you to their side and see using logical fallacies is a fair and honest way to persuade you. You and your thoughts are not “fair game.” This thinking is not modern. Both Plato and Aristotle taught about these logical fallacies. These men were from the third and fourth centuries BC. Trickery is that old. Beware of all you read. There are people out there from any political party who will use these tricks to “suck you in.” Or advertisers!
