It invites us to follow it down a pathway to a conclusion that promises to be as compelling as the chase.Īnd herein lies the fallacy, because red herrings were never meant to lead us to where we need to go, but only where we were willing to go. Like the hound chasing the scent, we are compelled by and attracted to the red herring. When I was a boy, we used, in order to draw oft’ the harriers from the trail of a hare that we had set down as our own private property, get to her haunt early in the morning, and drag a red-herring, tied to a string, four or five miles over hedges and ditches, across fields and through coppices, till we got to a point, whence we were pretty sure the hunters would not return to the spot where they had thrown off and, though I would, by no means, be understood, as comparing the editors and proprietors of the London daily press to animals half so sagacious and so faithful as hounds, I cannot help thinking, that, in the case to which we are referring, they must have been misled, at first, by some political deceiver.
A fun etymology chasing exercise seems to place this phrase with William Cobbett, a journalist in the 19th century, who used the term for stylistic flair to describe how easily misled the journalists of his time could be (that's not on the nose at all two centuries later). Print.A red herring, according to Oxford English Dictionary, is something that intentionally or unintentionally misleads or distracts from an important question. The New Media Writer. Southland: Fountainhead Press, 2014. Insight: Komen charity under microscope for funding, science. I like this meme just because it shows how stupid it sounds.īegley, Sharon, and Janet Roberts.
I do not see how any of that is relevant, but some people obviously do and that is why it is a problem. Since the views and laws on gay marriage have been spreading, there have arguments made that if we let two people of the same sex marry, then the unwanted consequence will follow that people will be able to marry their animals, and many other stupid things. The hamster meme (see Figure 6) is a very good example of this fallacy because it is something we see a lot of today. Slippery slope is when an arguement is made that if a particular action or event occurs, then an unwanted consequence will inevitably follow (Morey, 55). In this meme (see Figure 5), it is using hasty generalization because the speaker is saying the guy on the left is a representation of how all men used to be and the guy on the right represents how all guys are today. A fixed mindset is when you are not open to all the possibilities so you have a stubborn outlook on whatever it is. It reminds of the idea of having a fixed mindset. Hasty Generalization is when one reaches a conclusion without considering all the evidence, sometimes because of a preexisting bias (Morey, 54). This meme I found (see Figure 4) makes a joke about the Mexican race, immigrants more or less, by incorporating the game Uno. To me, this is just another word for racism. This fallacy is quick to judge a book by its cover. Genetic fallacy assumes a person’s origins determine his or her character (Morey, 54). The either/or fallacy is when it reduces an argument to only two possible options when many are probably available (Morey, 54). 2 Ron Burgundy makes a circular arguement It is not evidence because it is not a logical reason, but more of a personal opinion.įig. This meme (see Figure 2) is an example of this fallacy because Ron Burgundy repeats himself to make a point that he is “cool”. This relates to this meme because it makes you question the character of the breast cancer foundation.Ĭircular argument restates the claim as evidence as its proof, rather than developing logical reasons to support the claim (Morey, 53). There is a statistic out about the Susan G Komen foundation that they only use 15% of the money they raise actually towards breast cancer research (Begley and Roberts). In Figure 1, the speaker tries to say, “well if you have all the money to fly over here then why can’t you just give money instead of asking other people for it.” This is a good use of ad hominem because it makes you question their morals. This is a tactic which gets the speaker to gain the trust of their audience by taking it away from the other speaker. There are eleven different types of fallacies: ad hominem, begging the question, circular argument, either/or, genetic fallacy, hasty generalization, moral equivalence, post hoc ergo propter hoc, red herring, slippery slope, and straw man.Īd hominem is when you try and discredit the speaker’s argument by attacking the speaker’s character (Morey, 53).
Rhetorical fallacies can affect the logical argument you’re trying to make (Morey, 52).
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