Propaganda/Rhetorical Fallacies Flashcards
(32 cards)
Propaganda
refers to the deliberate attempt to influence a mass audience to act or think a certain way. Usually the term is associated with an intent to deceive.
Slogans
A “catchy” slogan is more easily remembered than a complicated and perhaps more accurate explanation.
Repetition
When a message is “drummed” into a listener’s consciousness, it tends to be remembered. A group can be trained to repeat the slogan so loudly and long that all rational thought becomes impossible
Loaded Words
Certain words - like peace, patriotism, moral, terrorist, socialism - arouse such strong emotional responses that they are called loaded words (they are loaded with feelings beyond the simple definition of the word.)
a. Often, loaded language exists as a substitute for other words or phrases, one more negative or positive than the other depending on circumstance (aka: euphemisms or pejorative terms)
Powerful Images
Just as there are loaded words, certain images are loaded with powerful emotional associations. Gardens, rainbows, sunshine, clear streams, beautiful people - these images tend to make us “feel good.” Also, images that are just the opposite tend to make us feel bad.
Appeals to our Fears
A powerful propaganda technique is to play on a listener’s fears. The message says, in effect, that if you don’t do a certain thing (or if you don’t think in a certain way), something that you fear very much will happen.
Emotional Fallacie
Appeals to out Basic Needs and Desires
All human beings need food, drink, clothing, and shelter in order to survive. We also have emotional needs: we need to be loved and cared for, to have meaningful work, to have a sense of dignity and self-worth. These can be used to shape a group’s opinions.
Emotional Fallacy
Card Stacking
A technique that seeks to manipulate audience perception of an issue by emphasizing one side and repressing another.
Emotional Fallacy
Bandwagon
Since most people like to part of the crowd, the propagandist can win over many followers if he can convince his listeners that everyone else is following a certain trend.
Emotional Fallacy
Transfer Device
A propagandist can create the impression that his cause possesses virtues comparable to the virtues of a symbol, idea, or person that the people already respect and admire. They hope to get a group’s feelings about one thing transferred to another thing.
Plain Folks
A propagandist can convince people that he is one of the “plain folks” who is one of the common citizens rather than a leader who is not part of the general group. The people will believe that since he claims to be one of them, he is trustworthy and has their best interests at heart.
Equality
sameness; giving everyone the same thing
Equity
fairness; giving everybody what’s fair so they can all have access to the same opportunity
eg. handicapped parking
Rhetoric
The art of speaking or writing effectibely and persuasively
Fallacies
are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim
Emotional Fallacies
are rhetorical fallacies characterized by the manipulation of the recipient’s emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence.
Red Herring
is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion.
Emotional Fallacy
eg. after coming home after curfew, you distract your parents by talking about the weather
Slippery Slope
arguments suggest that one thing will lead to another: This is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps, X, Y, Z will happen. So, if we don’t want Z to occur, A must not be allowed to occur either.
Emotional Fallacy
- If we ban Hummers because they are bad for the environment, eventually the government will ban all cars, so we should not ban Hummers!
- You’re jaywalking now? What’s next, murder?
Either/Or Choices (aka. false dichotomy, false dilemma, false duality)
to reduce complicated issues to only two possible courses of action
Emotional Fallacy
- We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth.
- In this example, the two choices are presented as the only options, yet the author ignores a range of choices in between such as developing cleaner technology, car-sharing systems for necessities and emergencies, or better community planning to discourage daily driving.
False Need
arguments that create an unnecessary desire for things
Emotional Fallacy
eg. You need an expensive car or people won’t think you’re cool!
Ethical Fallacies
destract from the credibility of the speaker/writer
Ad Hominem
(Latin for “to the man”) arguments attack a person’s character rather than that person’s reasoning.
Ethical Fallacy
- Why should we think a candidate who recently divorced will keep her campaign promises?
- She doesn’t know anything about cars because she has green eyes!
False Authority
asks audiences to agree with the assertion of a writer based simply on his or her character or the authority of another person or institution who may not be fully qualified to offer that assertion.
Ethical Fallacy
My dad said it, so it must be true.
Guilty By Association
calls someone’s character into question by examining the character of that person’s associates.
Ethical Fallacy
eg. Sara’s friend Amy robbed a bank; therefore, Sara is a delinquent
