onegoodmove

As in life the level of discourse on the internet ranges from excellent to really quite terrible. We are emotional animals and have to be careful not to let those emotions get in the way of clear thinking. Supporting our views with sound arguments, verifying information to the best of our ability and being willing to admit when we have erred. I have recently discovered two sites that are helpful in that regard. The first is Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies The other site I like is here and is part of the Nizkor Project. This site lists forty-two common fallacies including Ad Hominem, Straw Man, Begging the Question to mention a few.
Stephen's site is slightly different he lists categories of similar fallacies, covering basically the same ground as the Nizkor site. For instance he has a category called Fallacies of Distraction which includes the following:
1. False Dilemma:two choices are given when in fact there are three options
2. From Ignorance: because something is not known to be true, it is assumed to be false
3. Slippery Slope: a series of increasingly unacceptable consequences is drawn
4.Complex Question: two unrelated points are conjoined as a single proposition

I found his entry under False Dilemma particularly interesting. The first example of a false dilemma was "Either you're for me or against me" This had a familiar ring to it. Wasn't it President Bush that said that there was no room for neutrality in the war against terrorism "You're either with us or against us in the fight for terror." But as the president is discovering it is not quite that simple. It is not enough just to name the fallacy but that there is a method to prove it. In the case of a False Dilemma you would present the options given and show (with an example) that there is an additional option. So lets see a country could agree with us that the Al Qaeda are terrorists but not agree that the Iraqis are terrorists, in fact I believe many of them are making that point, and there you have an additional option they are neither totally with us or against. Proving the statement a false dilemma. This type of fallacy is very common and is often referred to as Black and White Thinking. As one of those left of left liberals I seldom have anything nice to say about our current president but I can certainly thank him for an excellent example of a logical fallacy.