I recall what a great man once said; and by great I mean moron; and by man I mean politician (which is far less than man (usually)). It went something like this “you can go to college and get an education, or you can get sent to Iraq”*. I’m sure you all remember this, and as far as what I am writing about, I think it qualifies for many of the various fallacies. It is both a hasty and an unsupported generalization; there are a lot of people that are in the services that do not have any college education, but there are many (myself included) that were/are pulled from their education when their nation calls. There are also plenty that have Associates, Bachelors, Masters, and even Doctorate degrees, and they all volunteered (more or less). False Dichotomy comes into play as well; the previously mentioned rings true for this as well, as does the fact that some take online classes while they are deployed. I guess they aren’t literally GOING to college, but they are working their way toward a degree. Or, maybe they are just trying to keep their brain running smooth, let’s not create any more fallacies by saying anyone taking college courses must be after a degree.
You may say that I have committed a fallacy by the things I have said about this politician; but I assure you I have not, because time after time he has reinforced what I have said. Fallacy or not, what he said was just outright insulting, and if you ask me, un-American.
* I didn't qoute precisely and I should have checked and been accurate. Here is the qoute, as far as I can tell it is exact:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
2 comments:
I completely forgot about that. At the time I thought that that was a statement which was misunderstood because of poor wording. I thought it was a jibe at Bush, saying that the war was a stupid decision. Is that the direct quote? I remember it being slightly different..but it's been so long. If that is the direct quote then ignore everything above because that can't be taken in any other way. Either way, it was definitely speaking without thinking.
So i don't remember this quote being said. But I definately think it was said to quickly. How can this man group so many people together so fast? It's quite amazing. I guess under him I am not a person because i did neither of those things... oops
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