Pogo
Diamond Member
- Dec 7, 2012
- 123,708
- 22,749
So how does this equate to my thread exactly? Does continually labeling it a fallacy excuse you from addressing my point? Come on Pogo, we can argue fallacies till doomsday, but you never gave a real answer to my thread. Lets go wiseguy. The idea that you think you are some sort of "enforcer" is hilarious. Your argument died some time ago. It was a non sequitur as far as my thread is concerned.
Back on topic you go.
I've been on topic the whole time, because as I said your OP depends on this rule of logic and cannot exist without it.
And the "answer" has been the same throughout. Let's run it in slo-mo:
Your OP poses this question, and you're absolutely right to pose it:
>> if we dissociate with everyone because of their political affiliation, just where are we as a country? <<
We must infer that you view such dissociation as a negative. And I agree with you.
In the instant case Shannon K. Walsh comes to a conclusion about Mike Rowe based on his association with a person she finds abhorrent.
Is that conclusion logical given its basis? No, it isn't. Rowe is correct to respond as he did.
In the other case offered here for comparison, you and some others came to a conclusion about Barack Obama based on his association with persons you find abhorrent.
Is that conclusion logical given its basis? No it isnt.
Notice that not only are both answers the same, but that they must be the same. It is not possible to declare that logic applies in A while it does not apply in B. It cannot be invoked selectively, because it's about how you reached the conclusion, not who's a participant in it. That is what makes it a fallacy. There isn't some kind of magical threshold where Guilt By Association kicks in. To suggest that based on our own view of the participants would not only be ludicrous but subjective.
In other words it doesn't matter who Glenn Beck or Bill Ayers threatened, or if they ever did any misdeed at all. That's irrelevant.
Is this making sense?
Moreover, Mike Rowe himself, quoting from your OP, makes this point:
>> How are we ever going to accomplish anything in this incredibly divisive time if we associate only with people that we don’t disagree with? <<
Rowe is absolutely right.
Now apply that to Obama and Ayers/Wright...
Bingo. Now you're consistent.
I did apply that to Ayers and Wright. Because the inherent hypocrisy here is, is that Obama can associate with a terrorist, but Mike Rowe cannot associate with a conservative firebrand like Glenn Beck. You have tried to explain why associating with a terrorist is not essentially a bad thing. My, oh my, how wrong you are.
Essentially you have tried to say that Obama has the same right to associate himself with a terrorist as Mike Rowe does with Glenn Beck.
THE ONE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE YOU IGNORE is that Beck is not a terrorist, he is a political commentator. So any associations he creates with others will not infer guilt of any kind. None.
Ayers is an avowed underground terrorist who has no regrets about what he did back in his hayday. You have a president who literally had his political career kickstarted this man. On top of that, Obama never explicitly rejected his endorsement for president.
Therefore, Pogo, any associations he as the President makes are subject to intense societal scrutiny, and in that regard would infer the guilt of sympathizing with a former terrorist.
Yours is an argumentum ad ignorantiam or an argument from ignorance. Do some investigating. Educate yourself, don't lecture me about consistency until you can learn to debate me directly instead of launching strawmen at me.
Wrong. And denialism is not a logical argument either.
Here's the one place you had it right:
Essentially you have tried to say that Obama has the same right to associate himself with a terrorist as Mike Rowe does with Glenn Beck.
That's it. And whether it's Glenn Beck or Barack Obama or Bill Ayers or a janitor or Adolf Freaking Hitler or Krishna the Redeemer or Rasputin, Beelzebub and Charles Manson all rolled into a tortilla and spread with a pico de gallo of Jesus Christ makes no difference whatsoever to the logic. NONE. Because this is about how you apply the argument -- not about who the players in it are.
And speaking of strawmen, I never suggested, said, opined or implied that "Mike Rowe cannot associate with a conservative firebrand like Glenn Beck". In fact I said the opposite from the beginning. That's called consistency. Nice try at putting words in my mouth, but that's dishonest.