Saturday, August 6, 2011

Another Common Fallacious Argument [2]

  

     Often, I notice that people use euphemisms when making a reference to a serious matter. They do this in order to make their argument sound stronger and create the appearance of a good argument. However this is very fallacious because it is essentially lying or making something sound good when it is not. Some examples of a euphemism used in this way: The lab rat wasn't killed, it was sacrificed. The death of innocent bystanders is collateral damage. Mass murder wasn't genocide, it was ethnic cleansing. and so forth. I do think that euphemisms are great tools to use in writing or sometimes when expressing a concern; however, this is not a good method to utilize when conducting an argument because it can often make you appear weak. Just by using semantics and calling one thing another, one cannot create a deeper or more concrete argument but actually the opposite. When one uses a euphemism the argument becomes dull and perhaps in these examples, atrocious. Again, euphemisms themselves are not fallacious, but often when used in an argument it can make one appear biased.

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