January Post

Lilly Crolius

Professor Ivey

Comm 160

February 6, 2017

Ever since Luke brought up fallacies, it’s been on my mind quite frequently. Our world today is very vocal about how we are viewed as, accepted, and treated. My generation, the millennials, are especially keen on protests, picketing, and in my opinion creating unreasonably weak arguments.

The fallacy that sticks out to me the most and seems highly relevant is Red Herring, or a distraction thrown into an argument to draw attention away from the main topic. I see on the news over and over again of how certain groups and protesters are caught in a discussion or an argument and are only left with resorting to ad hominem or the genetic fallacy.

Ad hominem is the fallacy where a person starts attacking the other arguer rather than the argument. On the Australian health show Insight, a woman asked another if having a heavier weight caused health issues. Another woman, Kelli-Jean Drinkwater, piped up and stated that it was rude to assume that overweight individuals are expected to not be as healthy. She then turned to a third member who was quite thin, Breanne and asked if she was happier at her weight than before when she, too, was overweight. She responded with a yes and that losing weight was the best thing to ever happen to her. She also claimed that she felt healthier and that her fertility rate was higher and may have been abolished if she remained at an unhealthy weight. Breanne turned back to Kelli and asked her the same question- “are you happy with your weight?” Kelli then became very defensive and said it wasn’t fair of her to ask that question because she found it offensive. She then continued to claim she was being personally attacked when in fact she had initiated the first ad hominem fallacy with Breanne.

The genetic fallacy is when a person is judged by their origin. This is very common when it comes to racial and gender issues in today’s society. Many white people are deemed racist, guilty of white supremacy, and are the reason racism has gotten worse. According to the Independent Journal Review, racism has actually decreased. In 1959 the approval rates for interracial marriage was at 4% whereas in 2013 it reached a remarkable 87%. Under no circumstances is racism gone in the world, in fact it would be an amazing task if it were to ever disappear. However, I truly believe that combating the racism against non-whites by using the genetic fallacy of assuming all conservative Caucasians are fascist, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and against people of color isn’t the answer and to me seems like fighting fire with fire and even possibly creating hate that wasn’t even there to begin with. Calling people names is no way to have a civil discussion. The same goes for issues of gender equality. As a female who promotes treating both sexes with respect, I can honestly say that I have seen far too many males be beaten down whether it be physically or verbally just for being born a boy. Nonexistent things like the patriarchy, the wage gap, and rape culture are perpetuated by the unreasonable idea that all males fulfill that stereotype. There are sexists and racists out there, but don’t assume just because innocent people share similar genetics means they share similar morals.

No matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, it is important to realize that attacking people due to their origins, or attacking them just to get away from the main point in an argument is very unhealthy and probably won’t solve any problems, at least long-term. Overall, a lot of the scenarios containing racism and sexism that have occurred have been cherry-picked (another fallacy; used to pick rare and slanted cases to support a claim) by both sides to make a point of their accuracy and truthfulness in politics and society today.