How about a spot the logical fallacy party?

[Glandmaster]

A party with cake that is I dont mean we should put philosophy professors up for public office I have been working on a similar idea myself to promote better understanding of logic and how it is (ab)used in our culture. However my idea is a tad british (Im thinking logical bingo!) and not finished so here is an idea we can steal:

While I was watching the political convention last week (and the week before as well, actually), it astounded me at how often the speakers would resort to obvious logical fallacies.  I counted five false dichotomies and four straw men within the Sarah Palin speech alone.  Now, just to not be political: I’m sure Joe Biden also committed a whole bunch of logical fallacies, I just didn’t think about it until I heard Sarah Palin ‘poison the well‘ against Barack Obama.

As a result, I’ve decided to throw a ‘Spot the Logical Fallacy’ party during the first debate September 26.  You can participate too, but I probably won’t be paying as much attention to you as I will to my guests.  I’ll come up with a list of logical fallacies, along with their definition, and print them out in a handy two-sided sheet.

Here are the rules:

   1. The first person to spot a logical fallacy must exclaim it, but only AFTER the speaker commits the fallacy.
   2. The winner is the person who catches the most logical fallacies.
   3. After the debate, a discussion on psychological, rhetorical, and propagandistic techniques will commence, but nobody is allowed to have a debate over the issues, unless there is a direct appeal to their logical consequences.
   4. No headbutting is allowed.

Via A Pixilated Mind. You can get their handy cheat sheet here.

I wonder if the quality of discourse amongst the electorate will improve as the lack of quality of thought from the candidates becomes more evident? To encourage this I would add to the third rule instructing the participants to reflect on how they use these techniques when talking about politics to others. Not that any of us fine people ever fly off the handle when discussing politics of course I am just wondering about the poor benighted fools outside the tower gates  

[Glandmaster]

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