Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Lies That Distort and Kill
For those who are interested in Rovewellian techniques, Republican talking points commonly utilize two logical fallacies, the Strawman argument and ad hominem tu quoque.
In the Strawman argument, you mistate and distort your opponent’s position, attack the revision, and then claim you have won. For example, Gore introduced legislation that was vital to the development of the internet. The Republicans said Gore claimed that he invented the internet and therefore he was a liar and self-promoter.
The ad hominem tu quoque logical fallacy uses hypocrisy to “refute” the argument. I.e., your argument must be false because you do it too. When Bush and his minions are caught in a lie, their supporters immediately attack Clinton’s statements concerning Monica Lewinsky. In other words, it doesn’t matter if the Bush Administration’s lies resulted in 100,000s of deaths in Iraq because Clinton said he didn’t have sex with Lewinsky.
The links to Wikipedia give a fuller explanation of these techniques and other variations.
Karen,
Sorry I forgot to tell you I linked this article over at PS. My gaffe.
Jeff