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February 8, 2008

What not to say ~ “How does it feel to have abandoned the cause of your life?”

A cable news show host opened his interview with a feminist political commentator who had just endorsed Obama with the question:

- How does it feel to have abandoned the cause of your life?

This remark is riddled with logical fallacies.

1) Absolute language / false dichotomy: It speaks of causes in black and white terms. Even if supporting a male candidate over a female one was a deviation for a feminist, that wouldn’t qualify as “abandoning the cause of your life.”

2) Reductive: It summarizes a complex situation simplistically.

3) Ad hominen attack: It attacks the person instead of the person’s position.

4) Assumption treated as fact. It makes the unwarranted assumption that any woman who works for women’s causes must vote for the female candidate, or she is abandoning her cause. The question builds on that assumption by asking how it felt, as if the idea that she had abandoned her cause was a given.

Watch for fallacies in your own political conversations. Any time someone makes a claim or asks a question based on an assumption that is unwarranted, address the assumption instead of responding to the point made based on the fallacy.

You can read more about fallacies, here.

The woman who this comment targeted said: “Hardballs are just part of the game — and I am happy to stand in the batter’s box and take any of them on. But spitballs aren’t part of the game.”

It’s not part of the game for you either.

February 6, 2008

A Political First Date - What not to say

Some If you try to start a reasonable political dialogue, think of it like a Political First Date. Put your best foot forward without putting a false front forward. The idea is: be who you are and still get a second date. Don’t respond to other people’s political ideas with comments like:

- If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.
- When did you stop thinking for yourself?
- People like you are what’s wrong with America.

What have people said to you that shut down dialogue for you? Please keep the focus of your comments on communication. You’ll find some exploratory blog guidelines in this post.

• A better way
• Across party lines
• Blog Guidelines
• Communciation questions
• Communication standards
• Get real
• Guest post
• Old school politics
• Priorities
• SpeakStrong in Politics
• Uncategorized
• What Not to Say
• What's wrong with this picture?