Lessons in Logic
Fallacies of Distraction
Fallacy #3 – Ad baculum
Ad baculum is an appeal “to the stick.” It occurs when when an argument presumes you will either agree or suffer consequences/discomfort. Such as…
”If you don’t vote for my dad, the state will fall apart. So you should vote for my dad.”
or (from Calvin and Hobbes)
“If you don’t give me your lunch, I’m going to pound you, you little twerp.”
or the fallacy will appeal to your personal anxiety…
”You should switch to our toothpaste because you don’t want your friends to laugh at you when you have to have all your teeth removed do you?”
or
“You don’t like Taco Bell? Hahahahaha!!”
From real life…
“You don’t like Taco Bell? Hahahahahaha!!”
Beware the ad baculum.
Also, I would welcome you to comment with any ad baculums of your own.
Wouldn’t this be in the vein of “Don’t do that. You wouldn’t want to have what happened to [insert friend or celebrity's name here] happen to you, would you?”?
Or the ever-popular “forward this email to 10 friends in the next 6 microseconds or tapioca pudding will flow from your water taps.” Me? I like tapioca pudding!
Yes. I vote for the tapioca…and rasperry lemonade.
If you don’t vote Republican, Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker of the House. Sorry, but I fell for that one. You should have posted this before early voting.
OK, I’ve got another one. If you don’t work hard and get good grades, you’ll end up in Iraq!
As a stranger in a strange land (a ‘red’ voter in Pelosi’s ‘blue’ state), I am finding it interesting that many of the “slam dunk” candidates are now airing commercials. Could the results of next Tuesday be different than our expectations? Time will soon tell.
How about “Go to sleep or the Boogeyman will get you!”?
Of course, the political season gives us more examples of ad baculum than we could possibly count. I think we have to differentiate between a thinly veiled threat (like the chain letters) and an actual threat (like Nancy Pelosi…)
How about when mom says, “If your room isn’t clean in five minutes, you will get a spanking?”