Logical Fallacies Part II
Slippery Slope
False Analogy
Non Sequitur
• Slippery Slope
• False Analogy
• Non Sequitur
• If we allow government to reform the health care system in the way
President Obama is proposing, we’ll have government-provided health care
available to any American citizen. Of course, who’s going to choose to pay
for health care when they can get it from the government for free? And what
business is going to provide a health care plan for its employees when it
knows its employees can just get it from the government? So then we’ll
have people abandoning private health insurance in droves and more people
signing on to government health care. This will cause private insurers to go
broke from lack of customers and cause government spending to explode to
cover new patients. This means less taxes collected from private health care
and more money coming from the government. Pretty soon, the government
will have to start rationing care just to contain costs, and they’ll create
boards to review who gets what kind of care and for how long. They’ll
literally be deciding who gets to live and who gets to die. And if these death
panels aren’t enough to deter us from government health care, then we
should realize that all that new spending to cover costs is going to bankrupt
the country and before we know it, the USA will collapse into economic
disaster. That’s why we should oppose President Obama’s health care
proposal.
• All these people making claims about global warming
should look at the weather in the eastern United States
over the last month. It’s been hit by some of the worst
snow storms on record. I guess that’s pretty good
evidence against the argument that the earth is warming
and that we need tougher environmental regulations.
• Last week, we had a guy come to our house to spray
pesticides on our back deck address our ant problem,
and now today, my dog is vomiting like crazy. As long
as I have pets, I’ll never spray for ants again.
• A doctor can consult books to make a diagnosis, so
a medical student should be able to consult books
when being tested.
• Are we going to lower community college tuition
or are we going to allow society to crumble at the
hands of an uneducated citizenry?
• Harper's new car is bright blue and gets excellent
gas mileage. Frank's new car is also bright blue.
Therefore, it probably gets excellent gas mileage,
too.
• If we can put humans on the moon, then we
should be able to find a cure for the common
cold.
• I pay for my college education just as I pay for
my groceries at the supermarket: with the money
I earn. Why does the administration think it has
the right to tell me what courses I have to take to
earn a degree? Certainly, no one would allow the
supermarket to tell me what groceries I have to
buy to be healthy.
• Because soft drinks contain so many chemicals, they
must be unsafe.
• I hate abortion, but it is better than a world full of
unwanted, abused children and single mothers killing
themselves trying to raise two or three kids.
• Jack always brags about how much he knows about
football, but he totally blew all his bets on this year’s
Superbowl. So much for him begin such a football
expert.
• Miller Brewing Company has to be the most
unscrupulous American business of the 20th
century. I recently read the story of a Miller
employee who, after 52 years of loyal service,
was fired two days before he would be eligible
for full retirement benefits.
• Mary loves good food; therefore, she will be an
excellent chef.
• You can raise your child however you want to, but I’m
telling you this: you do not want to ever show you’re
child weakness. Once you’ve made a decision stick to
it, even if you later come to believe it was the wrong
decision. The consequences of changing your mind in
front of your child will simply be too disastrous. If
your kid sees that you’ve changed your mind, then
she’ll see that you don’t know as much as you claim to,
and she’ll see that sometimes even you think you’re
wrong. At that point, she’ll start questioning every
decision you make, and pretty soon, she won’t listen to
anything you have to say. Before you know it, she’ll be
completely blowing you off and you’ll have an out-ofcontrol child you won’t be able to manage.
• The house around the block that’s for sale has faded
paint and weeds growing all over the front yard. From
the curb, it’s really ugly. I bet the inside is unkempt and
ugly, too.
• Frankie is did a project for his sociology class to
discover public beliefs about the necessity of a college
education in today’s economy. He got a great sampling
of students at the college by distributing a survey via
email to every enrolled student, and he got more than
45% of the surveys returned. The vast majority of
survey respondents (over 87%) indicated that they
believe a college education is either “critical to economic
success” or “important to economic success.” It looks
like Americans still see a need for college in order to
achieve financial success.
• We’re going to have to either create more space in our
jails or endanger society by releasing violent criminals
onto the street.
• Atheists have no outside, transcendent source for their
morality, so if a child is raised without religion, he will
not know right from wrong and will struggle to figure
out what kinds of behavior should be engaged in and
avoided. At some point, the child will probably realize
that there is no reason to not just do whatever he/she
wants to. After all, if there’s no god to punish and
reward, why not just do whatever you want? Pretty
soon, the child will realize that there’s nothing stopping
him from stealing except getting caught, and then
someday, he’ll realize that rape and murder are okay as
long as he can get away with it.