Module 7 Exercises: Fallacies
7A. The following is another paragraph from “How Shock Rock Harms Our Kids” by Peggy Mann, published in Reader’s Digest, July 1988:
There is, of course, no way to determine whether a suicide would have occurred in any case, but don’t tell that to the parents of 19-year-old John McCollum from Indio, Calif. When he killed himself, the coroner’s report stated, “Decedent committed suicide with .22 caliber pistol while listening to devil music.” John, who had been getting an earful of Ozzy Osbourne albums for five hours, was wearing stereo headphones at the time of his death. He was hearing such messages as, “Suicide is the only way out” from Suicide Solution” and “Can you help me? Oh, shoot out my brains, ohhh yeah. . . .I tell you to end your life” from “Paranoid.” (##?)
This paragraph suggests a relationship between the suicide of John McCollum and a certain type of rock music. Terms like “when,” “while,” and “five hours” indicate that this relationship has to do with timeframe. However, without coming out and directly saying so, the passage also raises the prospect that the music was the cause of the suicide.
Name the fallacy that confuses a time relationship with a causal relationship: ___________________________
7B. Each item below contains a fallacy.
For each item, select the particular fallacy label that seems to best apply.
1. Have you given up your evil ways?
a. [ ] Slippery slope
b. [ ] Loaded question
c. [ ] Special pleading
2. I don’t buy the anti-war argument because the guy who made it is a coward.
a. [ ] Questionable cause
b. [ ] False analogy
c. [ ] Appeal to personal attack
3. Here at the firm, we like to think of ourselves as a family.
a. [ ] Positive buzzwords
b. [ ] Two wrongs make a right
c. [ ] Hasty generalization
4. Don’t give me that “family” crap. Manson had a family.
a. [ ] Bandwagon
b. [ ] Sunk cost
c. [ ] Guilt by association
5. If you can’t beat’em, join’em.
a. [ ] Straw man
b. [ ] False dilemma
c. [ ] Sweeping generalization
