Monday, 6 September 2004

A laundry list is not a critique

Both James Joyner and Robert Garcia Tagorda take note of John Hinderaker’s post on a recent Kerry press release, which purports to expose “four days of lies” at the Republican National Convention. The only problem with the press release? It doesn’t actually present any rebuttals to the “lies” it catalogs, apparently on the mistaken impression that “X is lying because I say so” is a legitimate argument in a debate.

Meanwhile, One Fine Jay catches the Dems (in the same release) engaging in the sort of petty, vile anti-southern bigotry that helps explain why their support has essentially evaporated among native whites in the region.

8 comments:

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Either all ya’ll’s links to this page are bad, my browser’s broke or the Kamp Kerry yanked the page.

 

What’s even funnier is that they have pulled the piece. As a few minutes ago, it was no longer on their site.

 

cbk—just saw your post after mine. They have definitely yanked it.

 

Hmm, it seems back now.

 

Yup—I just noted that myself.

 

Hey, you guys need to read Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. In it, he explains, probably inadvertently, that a lie is any argument with which you do not agree.

Hope that clears it up for you.

 

Chris, a question of terminology. What do you call an argument where one is something just on the merits of your saying so? (“Stupid” doesn’t count either.)

 

Jay: Dunno. Ad hominem might cover it; if pressed to give it a term, I might call it “proof by assertion.”

 
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