By Luke Langlois

The AP English Language and Composition class is full of wonders. For instance, we took a brief look at rhetorical fallacies. Instantly, I thought to myself “Wow, this would make an excellent post for thebirdonfire.org!” Rhetorical fallacies, as defined by the University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Writing Center, are rhetorical strategies, usually used in arguments that “do not allow for the open, two-way exchange of ideas upon which meaningful conversation depend. Instead, they distract the reader with various appeals instead of using sound reasoning.” Today, let us take a look at some common rhetorical fallacies. Use this information as you will. Sometimes, fallacies are key parts of highly effective arguments.

1. The ad hominem argument (Latin for “to the man”): An ad hominem argument criticizes an opposing idea by attacking the person with the idea, rather than criticizing the actual idea or its merits. Something like “Your financial advice is invalid because you’re old and crusty!” is an ad hominem argument. I have placed this at the top of the post because this is, by far, the most commonly seen fallacy. In fact, by the time you have read this, I bet multiple instances of this fallacy have already popped into your mind.  
2. Argument from Authority: An argument from authority is an argument where a large portion of the merit of the argument comes from the fact that the speaker is someone well-known. Basically, a commercial starring a celebrity is an argument from authority. “Why, of course I should buy Gatorade! Steph Curry told me that it is THE most refreshing beverage on Earth.”
3. Appeal to Ignorance: I’m not sure how to define this one, so I’ll give the Princeton Review’s definition. “An appeal to ignorance is based on the assumption that whatever has not been proven false must be true (or similarly, whatever has not been proven true must be false). For example, nobody can prove that Santa Claus is not actually real. Therefore, Santa Claus is real. Conversely, nobody has proven the existence of Santa Claus; therefore, Santa Claus is not real.
4. Hasty Generalization: A hasty generalization occurs when a writer intentionally tries to lead the reader to a conclusion without actually providing a sufficient amount of evidence for that conclusion. “The human race is doomed. I just got mugged!” This fallacy is also sometimes known as a sampling error because the speaker is basing their argument off of a single or very limited number of experiences.
5. Non sequitur (Latin for “it doesn’t follow”): A non sequitur statement is a statement that logically does not follow what comes before it. “Because Barack Obama is no longer President, all snails are able to move slightly faster.” Unless you happen to believe the end of Obama’s presidency brought a speed boost to snails, this is a non sequitur statement.
6. False Dichotomy: A false dichotomy makes the reader only consider two possible extremes of an idea, when there are many more possibilities that come in between the two presented ones. “Starting a company is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. You either monumentally fail, or you’re Amazon!” This speaker is arguing that a business is either a failure, or a multibillion dollar juggernaut. There are varying degrees of success in between “failure” and “juggernaut,” depending on your own philosophy, of course.
7. Slippery Slope: A slippery-slope argument suggests that drastic consequences will arise from a minor cause. “Don’t you dare eat that cookie. Before you know it, you’ll be morbidly obese!” Sometimes, this fallacy may overlap with the hasty-generalization fallacy.
8. Faulty Causality: A faulty causality is exactly what it sounds like. The author attempts to set up a cause-and-effect relationship where one does not actually exist. “Everyone who drinks water is going to die.” Yes, everyone dies, but, to our current knowledge, it’s not because of drinking water.

This post is getting a bit lengthy, so I’m going to cut it off here. However, there are many other rhetorical fallacies that are to be discovered. Stay tuned for the next post on RHETORICAL FALLACIES.

Editor: Makena Behnke