Learning Objectives

 Identify fallacies within your speech by understanding what fallacies are and the
common mistakes when engaging in persuasion.

A fallacy is an error in reasoning. It is a weak argument. To be more specific, a fallacy is an

“argument” in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree
of support. By becoming aware of the most common fallacies, you can avoid them in your
own speech and detect them when others use them.

Why are fallacies so bad? They sound GREAT and the audience LOVES them! Here is
why:

 They distract us from the real issue.

 They “trick” us into faulty reasoning.
 They deceive us into believing bad conclusions.
 They keep us from having a good discussion of the topic at hand.

As a student in a public speaking class, your due diligence is to present information that is
embedded in research and logical support. In order to do this you will want to avoid fallacies.
Here are the most common fallacies that public speaking students engage in during their
speeches. Each fallacy will have a definition, example, and video clip. You might hear some
arguments that have made sense before; however, now that you have greater knowledge, you
should realize these arguments are faulty and should not be used.

See this example:

Republican senator says guns don't kill people, video games do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuiDBr0WnZU

Red Herring

A red herring fallacy gets its name from the sport of fox hunting. In foxhunting, riders on
horses follow their dogs who are chasing a fox. Riders sometimes keep a fish, a red herring, in
their saddlebags. If they are ahead in the chase, they can stop and drag the fish across the
fox’s scent and make the trail go in a different direction. When the opponents’ dogs encounter
the fishy smell, it distracts them from their mission of fox chasing.
A red herring fallacy occurs when a speaker distracts listeners with sensational, irrelevant
material. Sometimes it happens when the speaker changes the subject and sometimes it
happens when the speaker brings up irrelevant information to the topic. Why is this a
problem? It is a problem because it sidetracks the argument at hand. It seeks to “win” an
argument by diversion. Take this example, “We admit that voting to support school choice is
a popular measure. But we also urge you to note that there are so many issues on this ballot
that the whole thing is getting ridiculous.” The argument at hand is whether or not to vote for
school choice but the speaker distracts us by bringing up the point that there are too many
issues on the ballot. It may be true that there are too many issues on the ballot, but that doesn’t
make the school choice something we should vote for or not.

In the video clip above, “Republican senator says guns don’t kill people, video games do”
notice how Senator Ted Lamar (R) distracts from the issue of background checks with the
topic of video games. The question: Can you envision a way of supporting the universal
background checks bill? Senator Lamar Alexander’s answer: Video games are a bigger
problem than guns because video games affect people.

Yes, it may be true video games affect people but that doesn’t mean we should or should not
have universal background checks. Bringing up video games is a way to divert the audience’s
attention and avoid the question. Smells fishy to me.

Trump Attempts to Draw Attention to ISIS

Here is another example of a red herring. Donald Trump was asked about making
inappropriate remarks about women. He replied that “he wasn’t proud” and then quickly
diverted the topic to ISIS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vf6PxomAI

Slippery Slope

Often times a speaker will argue one bad thing will result in many other bad things. This is
done without proving these negative things will happen. A slippery slope causes the
discussion to get off track. If you are not careful, you will find yourself arguing the ending
claim and miss the real debate. Consider this example. In talking about gay marriage,
Republican candidate for Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch went down a slippery slope that led to
tables and dogs. “At what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry
this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs?”
DIRECTV commercial - Don't Wake Up in a Roadside Ditch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIv3m2gMgUU
Ad hominem
An Ad Hominem fallacy is one where the speaker attacks the person rather than the point.
For a great overview of Ad Hominem, watch this short video.

Ad Hominem (Appeal to Personal Attack)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD50OTR3arY

The Great Lipstick War

Sarah Palin, Republican Vice-Presidential candidate ran with a persona of being feisty and
tough In a speech, she made this statement to charge up her base: “You know they say the
difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull–lipstick. ” Not long after, Obama said in a
speech, “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.” Obama claimed it wasn’t a statement
directed at Palin, what do you think? Watch these clips and see what you think.
CNN: Lipstick comment made Palin a star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtZfGgen30c
Raw Video: Obama's Lipstick Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuizXVoY2bc

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

The fallacy here is the assumption that one thing caused another without proof of the link.
When you study statistics, you will learn the phrase “correlation does not mean causation”
which means just because two things seem to happen together, doesn’t mean that the one
actually caused the other. Post hoc ergo propter hoc = after this therefore because of this and
is a fallacy of false cause. Just because two things are consecutive, doesn’t mean that one
caused the other. I do still believe that it rains every time I wash my car.

Talking to cashiers at fast-food restaurants causes obesity (the more I talk to fast food
cashiers, the heavier I get).
Author unknown
Sports fans have a lot of these– “my team lost Friday because I forgot to wear my lucky hat.”
Speaking of hats, watch this scene from the West Wing as the “president” educates his staff
about cowboy hats and fallacies.

Ambiguity (equivocation)
Fallacies caused by ambiguity occur, not surprisingly, when some ambiguous term is used in
the argument. An ambiguous term is one that has more than one meaning. The structure of the
argument may be clear, and there may be solid evidence supporting the propositions. The
problem arises from having nothing solid on which to base our conclusion. We saw this
fallacy in play during the Clinton/Lewinsky investigations. If you recall, when questioned
about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, President Clinton responded that he never had
“sexual relations” with that woman. The phrase “sexual relations” can include a whole range
of sexual behaviors.
Soldiers exiting home in Iraq. Let’s look at a more recent example:
We won’t be safe until we win the war on terrorism.
Can you spot the ambiguity? Actually, there are two: safe and terrorism. What is safe to one
person is much less so to another. Likewise, behaviors that appear terrorist-like to one person
are simply impassioned acts to another.

Hasty generalization
Drawing conclusions based on insufficient or non-representative observations. People often
commit hasty generalizations because of bias or prejudice. For example, someone who is a
sexist might conclude that all women are unfit to fly jet fighters because one woman crashed
one. People also commonly commit hasty generalizations because of laziness or sloppiness. It
is very easy to simply leap to a conclusion and much harder to gather an adequate sample and
draw a justified conclusion. Thus, avoiding this fallacy requires minimizing the influence of
bias and taking care to select a sample that is large enough.

Steve King assumes Mexicans are drug dealers: “For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s
another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they’ve got calves the size of
cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
Representative Steve King, a Republican from Iowa making assumptions about immigrants
from Mexico.

Herman Cain assumes Muslims are militants: “I would not be comfortable [with a Muslim in
my administration] because you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims,
those that are trying to kill us. And so when I said I wouldn’t be comfortable, I was thinking
about the ones that are trying to kill us, number one. Secondly, yes, I do not believe in sharia
law in American courts. I believe in American laws in American courts. Period. There have
been instances in New Jersey. There was an instance in Oklahoma where Muslims did try to
influence court decisions with sharia law. I was simply saying very emphatically American
laws in American courts.” Republican Tea Party Candidate, Herman Cain.

False Dilemma (Also Called Either Or Thinking)

Framing choices so that listeners think they have only two options and one of them is
obviously preferred. I saw someone with a shirt on the other day that said, “America, love it
or leave it.” It set up only two options. What if someone mostly loves America, but doesn’t
like the health care system? What if they like America, but see that there is unfair distribution
of wealth? What if they think another country has a better political system? Setting it up like
there are only two choices when clearly most things have many shades of gray is creating a
false dilemma.

“So, it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our
nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in
the hands of our President and we say to him – use these powers wisely and as a last resort.
And it is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein – this is your last chance – disarm or be
disarmed.” Hillary Clinton (D)

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are
with the terrorists.” George W. Bush (R) statement to Congress after 9/11.

We can either tax and regulate cannabis for adult use, reduce violence, and enrich our state, or
we can continue a policy that enriches the cartels and has always has a racially biased pattern
of enforcement. Ben Jealous candidate during a Democratic primary for Governor

“And the reason is because there really are only two alternatives here. Either the issue of Iran
obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it’s resolved
through a force, through war.” Barack Obama (D)

Strawman
Strawman fallacy is where a speaker belittles or trivializes an argument to refute them easily.
The speaker cannot defeat the real issue so they frame the issue as silly –they make a straw
doll–a fake argument that looks a little like the real one that is easily defeated. Often the issue
they attack has a semblance of the real issue but is different in significant ways.

Consider this example, President Obama introduced a provision that would allow Medicare to
pay for counseling on end-of-life issues if the patient asked for it. Doctors could counsel
patients about end-of-life care issues such as living wills and hospice care. Senator Chuck
Grassley, Iowa Republican said in a town hall meeting. “In the House bill, there is counseling
for end of life. You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life,
you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government-run plan to decide
when to pull the plug on grandma.” Notice what happened, he changed counseling about end-
of-life issues into pulling the plug on grandma. In this example, Grassly created the issue into
something that sounds ridiculous and is easy to defeat.

So to say we’re going to basically outlaw coal, which is what this administration has done, is
so self-defeating. it destroys jobs, it destroys communities, it’s not helping us, and it’s not
helping global warming. Carly Fiorina (R) in an interview with Katie Couric. Why is this a
strawman? Because this is not what the current administration has done, it is an exaggerated
strawman that is easy to knock down. According to an article in VOX on this quote. “US coal
has taken a beating from natural gas, renewables, and efficiency — the market, in other words
— but it still provides more than a third of US electricity. And EPA expects that under the
Clean Power Plan, that share will be at 27 percent in 2030. That estimate is probably high,
given how uncompetitive coal has become, but even if it drops to 20 percent, that’s a fifth of
US electricity and a long way from outlawed. “

I think it’s terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the
baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now,
you can say that that’s okay, and Hillary can say that that’s okay, but it’s not okay with me.
Because based on what she’s saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been,
you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day.
And that’s not acceptable. Donald Trump said about Hillary Trump’s position on abortion at
the final presidential debate. This mischaracterized her position.
Retrieved from: https://open.maricopa.edu/com225/chapter/possible-fallacies-reading/
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