Browsed by
Category: Strawman

Strawman argument: False quote asserts candidate is an idiot

Strawman argument: False quote asserts candidate is an idiot

Goal: Dr. Ben Carson is an idiot Method: Assertion, Strawman Argument: Fabricate a statement about your opponent and then use that fabrication to argue your opponent is an idiot. Scorecard: Over 36,000 shares within a month of this propaganda item posted online. Snopes.com notes the headline is fiction; Dr. Carson never said what is claimed. Here is the original headline: A political report claimed Dr. Ben Carson said he had no idea how gravity works but asserted climate change is a hoax….

Read More Read More

Republican Platform seeks to sell off all Western US Federal lands

Republican Platform seeks to sell off all Western US Federal lands

TL; DR Summary The Seattle Post Intelligencer says the Republican Platform calls to “Sell off public lands in the West, log national forests”. This link was widely distributed on social media. Snopes.com says the erroneous story was based on an incorrect blog post from ThinkProgress claiming the GOP plans to close national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, national forests, BLM lands  and sell them to private interests. Snopes.com notes the assertions about national parks, etc, are not supportable and that the Seattle…

Read More Read More

Logical fallacy: Linking a $15 minimum wage in 2022 to unemployment in 2015

Logical fallacy: Linking a $15 minimum wage in 2022 to unemployment in 2015

TL; DR Summary Occupy Democrats issued propaganda posters in 2015 proclaiming that in spite of a $15 minimum wage, Seattle’s unemployment has gone down and restaurants are booming, But the $15 wage does not take effect until 3 to 7 years into the future. This linkage is a logical fallacy.                 Poster 2 Source: Occupy Democrats.  Shared over 28,000 times. There is no connection between a $15 minimum wage and Seattle restaurants or unemployment in 2015…

Read More Read More

Use sleight of hand to persuade your propaganda target

Use sleight of hand to persuade your propaganda target

TL;DR Summary There is a whopper error in this poster. Can you spot it? Let’s rewrite the first line: US $7.25 Minimum Wage 49.95 Danish Krone Written that way, you would convert one currency in to the other, right? Canadian currency, like the US, is called a “dollar”. But the US dollar and the Canadian dollar are not equivalent. This propaganda poster uses this sleight of hand magic trick to persuade – most people see the $7.25 and the $10.45 and…

Read More Read More

Cherry Picking

Cherry Picking

TL;DR Summary: Example of a simple to understand poster that is out of date and misleading but lives on forever on the Internet! The post is from 2014 but was still being shared in 2015 and 2016. The $15 a month figure is the minimum payment if you are making too much money to qualify for more assistance. State governors largely reversed the changes. The issue has nothing to do with taxing the wealthy and the U.S. still has a future…

Read More Read More