The article examined in this essay provides a lot of information on the consequences of President Obama’s proposed Department of Defense budget cuts. Unfortunately, the article also contains many critical thinking fallacies. This essay will discuss two of those fallacies: red herring and appeal to an unqualified authority.
In an effort to provide validity to his opinion, Hanson talks about how Soldiers are provided free training while traditional college students accrue debt with no practical education. This is a great example of including a red herring in an assertion. A red herring fallacy diverts the audience’s attention by using information that is not necessarily relevant to the subject of the discussion. Although soldiers do receive …show more content…
These illustrations represent Hanson’s use of the fallacy of appealing to unqualified authority. This fallacy occurs when information is uncited or cited from a weak source. The problem with this fallacy encourages the reader to form opinions based on false, skewed or limited information. A specific example of this is when Hanson states that budget cuts will provide legitimacy to President Obama’s desire to reduce our role in the world and apologize for our past sins. Throughout his article, Hanson never cites a source or quotes a credible expert. All of these comments may be valid and apply perfectly to the argument, however, without proper citation his points in this discussion are based on opinion not fact.
Red herrings and appeal to unqualified authority are two tactics Hanson used to persuade people to value defense spending more than social programs. Unfortunately, Hanson’s inability to establish credibility in his arguments left him with a weak case. If Hanson had taken the time to support his contentions with dependable and trustworthy sources, his article would have actual merit. When authors take the time to make strong cases, flashy tactics such as red herrings and appeals to unqualified authority are not
In an effort to provide validity to his opinion, Hanson talks about how Soldiers are provided free training while traditional college students accrue debt with no practical education. This is a great example of including a red herring in an assertion. A red herring fallacy diverts the audience’s attention by using information that is not necessarily relevant to the subject of the discussion. Although soldiers do receive …show more content…
These illustrations represent Hanson’s use of the fallacy of appealing to unqualified authority. This fallacy occurs when information is uncited or cited from a weak source. The problem with this fallacy encourages the reader to form opinions based on false, skewed or limited information. A specific example of this is when Hanson states that budget cuts will provide legitimacy to President Obama’s desire to reduce our role in the world and apologize for our past sins. Throughout his article, Hanson never cites a source or quotes a credible expert. All of these comments may be valid and apply perfectly to the argument, however, without proper citation his points in this discussion are based on opinion not fact.
Red herrings and appeal to unqualified authority are two tactics Hanson used to persuade people to value defense spending more than social programs. Unfortunately, Hanson’s inability to establish credibility in his arguments left him with a weak case. If Hanson had taken the time to support his contentions with dependable and trustworthy sources, his article would have actual merit. When authors take the time to make strong cases, flashy tactics such as red herrings and appeals to unqualified authority are not