Of course, a false premiss does not mean that the conclusion is ipso facto false. Second of all, as Posner says, it is a good thing. Trump usually speaks before an attentive audience, but much of the electorate is inattentive. No matter how well informed that we think we are (in fact thinking that we are informed on everything when we obviously can’t be just makes it worse), we have to rely on brands in our republic. True freedom begins with reliance on God to guide this process and provide what you need. This is the reason that we have a republic, or what Posner calls a form of elite democracy, even though technologically, we could have a true majoritarian democracy in pretty short order. Currently they are telling us to vote for H. Clinton. Was Trump’s hyperbole appropriate? Most Republicans would rather let the news media have its way. Worked, I am sad to say. When this happens, then a fallacy has been committed. When we go to the polls to vote, we should each be voting based upon our own biases, not a newsreporter’s bias. The context is largely irrelevant when it comes to the prudence of saying something so click-baity and stupid. No. Furthermore, although they may pretend that their choices are more rational than the ignorant mob, studies have shown that even so-called “high information voters” actually tend to pick a brand and then adapt their policies to the brand, rather than the other way around. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The video below provides that. Can we trust the news media to tell us the truth? So I strive for simple, clear statements and pat myself on the back when I get close to making my point. TRUMP'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS VERSUS BIDEN'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS, THE VIRTUE SIGNALING "WE BELIEVE" YARD SIGN. According to Posner, therefore, the function of voters is not to actually be perfectly informed on and decide all complex issues, but instead it is to keep each of the two major brands from going too far. Also known as contextomy, the fallacy of quoting out of context occurs when an original phrase is distorted or a claim is misconstrued from its original meaning, by quoting it out of context. WHERE IS THE REPORTING ABOUT THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS? Professor Becker has died, but I think the blog may still exist as an archive. His PC is just pitched to a different crowd than is his opponent’s (no surprise there). Most of the examples above are do not by themselves qualify as arguments. Luckily, those middle voters are becoming increasingly horrified by Trump, and the Trump horror show is drowning out any “slice of death” marketing efforts that the Republicans can concoct against Clinton. My point here, in this thread, is that the Trump comment about shooting people on Fifth Avenue is not particularly a good example of the problem. WHY DOES IT MATTER? I can’t enumerate those magnificent things for everyone since the master communicator allows them to be created in the mind of the listener. After listening to the quote in context, it is obvious that Trump intended nothing more than a bit of hyperbole. If so, I can highly recommend it to readers serious about issues and about how to go about thinking about an issue. The context in which a passage occurs always contributes to its meaning, and the shorter the passage the larger the contribution. I’ve been a fan of Posner’s since law school when his “Economic Analysis of of Law” was the textbook for a class that I took by that title. Our bias will not influence a great many votes. I still go back to that book when examining the economic impact of a given type of law. Trump says a lot of things that have no factual content or basis whatsoever, but his particular audience just loves being titillated by his message, so he keeps pouring it on. However, I’ve noticed a coincidence that whatever he’s saying, based on your responses, must be something that I’m in agreement with. The fallacy of quoting something out of context is often included in the Fallacy of Accent, and it is true that there are strong parallels. The fallacy of quoting out of context is committed when a contextomy is offered as evidence in an argument. How You can lower the price of Gas for Me! However, this quote misrepresents the original passage: If you notice, the phrase "it is all that is essential to Agnosticism" actually refers to the preceding passage. In this, someone is quoted out of context so that their position appears weaker or more extreme than it is. "—Gilson Gardner These are certainly Gilson Gardner's exact words, and just as certainly they … But let's look at the quote in the context of the two sentences following it: It is now obvious that instead of raising doubts, Darwin was simply using a rhetorical device to introduce his own explanations. Quoting out of context is an informal fallacy and a type of false attribution in which a passage is removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning. First of all, it simply is what it is. I’m a strong admirer of Judge Posner, one of our great conservative jurists. Example of Fallacy of Quoting Out of Context "One of the finest things ever done by a mob was the crucifixion of Christ. Large companies have an interest in big government. I also think you are touching on something important when you make the link between the brutality of groups like ISIS to the dynamics of Trump’s appeal. PS: I still don’t know who this “Novademocrat” feller is that you keep responding to. At Trump’s rally, I’d just spin some counterfactual yarns about how bad the economy is, how many jobs trade liberalization has killed, how many people are being murdered, how badly the elections are being rigged, how many Muslims are planning to kill you, how many immigrants are surging across the borders, how much lower I could make everyone’s taxes while increasing spending and collapsing the economy through decreasing world trade volumes At Clinton’s rally, I’d talk grandly about government programs for this or that group that we’d pay for by taking money from everyone, how health care issues were resolved by Obamacare, how our candidate did a great job in managing the US/Russia relationship. I assume this guy must be a very conservative Democrat (they do exist, but they are becoming rare). Here was The Hill‘s title on a January 23rd article, “Trump: I could shoot people in streets and not lose support“. Although the pendulum may swing from one side to the other, eventually the vast group of, often uninformed, voters in the middle will punish the extremes, and after some soul searching, the punished party often swings to the other side, sometimes causing a complete flip (the flip betwen the parties on civil rights is a great example of this). A good example is already hinted at in the discussion of the Fallacy of Accent: irony. What the world needs now in addition to love is wisdom. This false impression is reinforced by Kofahl's misleading editorial insertion in brackets of the phrase "fossil hominids". But Prudence would dictate that you should not make such violent, hyperbolic statements to begin with. Lauding his fans’ loyalty at a campaign event in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Saturday, Trump said he could kill people and still be popular. Once consumers have chosen a brand, they tend to keep brand loyalty and parrot the same merits of their brand that the brand itself advertises, or in other words, they give the same wonderful qualities that Coke or Pepsi advertises as to why their loyal consumers should respectively choose their soft drink over their rival. Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach. HE IS QUOTING SCRIPTURE AT ME! They will have to work harder to find a job and take a pay cut, but the option is still there. The news media spend lots of time telling us who we should vote for. I don’t think anybody except you is in danger of thinking Trump might start shooting people. Such fallacious quoting can take two distinct forms: Kofahl quotes Reader as evidence of his claim that "fossil hominids" are discredited, but Reader's previous sentence makes it clear that he is saying only that it is the title to "oldest evidence of mankind's existence" that is ephemeral.