College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Government/Politics/

Weekend is over…back to the grind…….

I try to help people understand what is going on in American politics and the world…….I recently wrote a post entitled “argumentum ad populum….basically it is if you say something long enough it becomes true….type of thinking…..read it for yourself….

lobotero.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/arg…

It explains the rhetoric on the cable news channels……I got to thinking about a logic class I took about a billion years ago and another phenom came to mind…..argumentum ad hominem…..

In logic, the argumentum ad hominem is typically described as having the following form:

1. A makes claim B.

1. There is something objectionable about A.

1. Therefore, claim B is false.

There are three basic forms of argumentum ad hominem:

1. Ad hominem abusive; also called argumentum ad personam. Instead of attacking an assertion, the argument attacks the person who made the assertion.

1. Ad hominem circumstantial: Instead of attacking an assertion, the attacker points to the relationship between the person making the assertion and the person’s circumstances.

                           Ad hominem tu quoque: Literally translated as, “at the person, you too,” this could be    called the “hypocrisy” argument. In this form of attack, one argues that the person does not practice what he or she preaches.

Now think about any news that you may listen to on a daily basis…..does any of it sound anything like what I described?  Then think about the political talking points….if you look closely they follow this line of thinking almost every time….

As much as I would like to think of myself as “fair and balanced”…I do succumb to this from time to time….I think all writers and analysts do….it is part of the beast of analysis…..ALL TV analysts are guilty of this…regardless of which side of the political spectrum one stands…..

We as consumers of the news, must know these things and learn to look for the truth in ALL political statements….it may be there or it may be a total fabrication of the facts…if we do not search of the truth then we are destined to make totally irrational decisions about the governance of our nation….and we are seeing just how disastrous this could be……we are making decisions based on total untrue and falsified data….it is in its infancy right now….but the beast is growing rapidly and if not exposed to the cleansing light of truth….then all will be lost and this democracy will exist NO MORE!