Charisma is one of the most important features of the modern policy-maker. With the ever-increasing use of online media combined with the ravenous appetite of an increasingly partisan 24-hour news cycle, a leader must look and sound as good as possible all the time. And as any life coach will attest to, one of the best ways to do this is an air of confidence. There are two ways politicians (on both sides) can sound confident: state facts, or be dramatic. Unfortunately, these tend to be rather exclusive, and dramatics win more often than not.
Other than the techniques examined in this site’s original post, there are another half-dozen common fallacies often employed particularly in speech-making. They are (in no particular order) the Hasty Generalization, the False Cause, the Invalid Analogy, the Red Herring, the Either-Or, and the Slippery Slope. A well-informed listener can often spot when these fallacies are being employed, as they rarely hold up to a reasonable amount of critical thinking.
Hasty Generalization, False Cause, and Invalid Analogy are all somewhat similar, in that they take shreds of evidence and weave a narrative that, while it makes great headlines and talking points, isn’t necessarily close to the truth. The Hasty Generalization is much what it sounds like: the speaker makes a conclusion based on evidence that is incomplete, circumstantial, or otherwise inadequate. This can be used both to support something (the Reagan tax cuts helped form the 90s boom years, so tax breaks for the wealthy must always work) or derail it (the Fukushima nuclear plant wasn’t able to withstand a massive earthquake, so all nuclear power plants are going to blow up).
An example of False Cause was seen in the “Card-Stacking” scenario in the aforementioned video: correlating two events that have virtually no relation. One of my favorite examples is when Obama was inaugurated, the stock market took a sizable hit. Certain media outlets had a field day with this, ignoring the fact that a number of presidents of both parties have been inaugurated on bad days for the stock market. This is similar to the Invalid Analogy, except instead of having a false cause-effect, we have a false comparison. It is most often used to correlate a social service or servant with the Nazi party or Hitler, respectively, making it very easy to flag.
The other three techniques are various scare tactics. First we have the Red Herring, which is one of the most common forms of traditional propaganda. When using the Red Herring, the speaker will introduce a concept that has no relevance to the topic at hand, commonly seen in extra-patriotic rhetoric designed to subtly paint the opponent as un-American. “In this post-9/11 world” is another example of a Red Herring, as the tragedy very rarely connects with the speaker’s subject, but to question the correlation would be to insult the victims of the attacks.
The Either-Or is very recognizable, as it is the favorite technique of Hollywood villains. Essentially, the speaker offers two choices in a crisis: their unpalatable option or the collapse of civilization as we know it. The Defense Department is able to rally support for increasing annual budgets because if we don’t give them what they need, the terrorists win. The Either-Or features prominently on propaganda posters from last century.
Finally, the Slippery Slope, often recognizable because the speaker includes the exact phrase within the speech itself. It implies that if action X is taken, action Y is sure to follow, and civilization as we know it will soon collapse. Nowadays it features prominently in anti-marijuana campaigns, assuming that if we legalize pot, we’ll legalize crack and heroin and murder. It also features heavily in the abortion debate, with liberals claiming that if we eliminate the right to choose, soon women will be back in the kitchens unable to divorce their abusive husbands or vote or drive; conservatives counter that if we keep abortion legal, there’s nothing stopping us from taking any old unwanted baby and turning it into protein paste to feed the government-sponsored prostitution rings.
Propaganda is everywhere. It always has been, and always will be. Though we as a thinking people have wizened up to its tricks in the past half-century, thanks to warnings offered by various dystopian authors, the propaganda has evolved with it. A thinking country is a free country, and it is more important than ever before to actually listen to what our leaders are saying, and think about it. When you’re preparing to vote, ask yourself: can I trust this? Or is this just propaganda? If you’re unsure, do a little research. Don’t try to read the whole health care bill, but look at what various independent sources have to say, left-of-center and right-of-center. Draw a conclusion, and spread the word. In short: stay informed, America.