The Straw Man Fallacy: Is Video Game Violence Bad

A fallacy, by definition, is an argument that uses poor reasoning. Before one uses a fallacy, it’s important to have full understanding or else you risk losing your whole ethos aspect of your argument. Heinrichs gives three important parts to detecting fallacies. “All you have to do is look for a bad proof, the wrong number of choices, or a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion.” (Heinrichs 146)

A fallacy is defined as a kind of error in reasoning. They can be persuasive and be created both unintentionally and intentionally in order to deceive others from the truth. Fallacies often indicate a false belief or cause of a false belief (dowden, 2006). An argument or situation commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. This defeats the purpose of the argument since its point is to give reason to support the conclusion. Fallacies affect the outcome of our everyday decision making process. There are three types of logical fallacies discussed in this paper along with the importance of utilizing critical thinking skills.

An original example of the Strawman fallacy would be “We need to spend money towards fixing our city roads.” Says person A. Then Person B might might counter with something such as “So you’re against spending money to help the homeless!”This is an example of a straw man fallacy because person A is stating the need to repair the cities roads. Then person B is misrepresenting them by saying that they are against spending money to help the homeless.

Rhetorical fallacies are “errors and manipulation of rhetoric and logical thinking,” as defined by informationisbeautiful.net. Rhetorical fallacies such as affirming the consequent, appeal to pity, and undistributed middle, can be seen in any type of debate, or conversation. Rhetorical fallacies are very apparent in politic related public speaking, as I have observed. This paper will examine three videos from the Meet the Press series and the rhetorical fallacies I identified in these three videos.

In writing, fallacies and cognitive biases hamper the effectiveness with which an author depicts his/her points, and therefore obscure the main purpose of a piece. A fallacy is defined as mistaken belief based on an unsound argument, while a bias is a prejudice in favor or against a certain thing, person, object, place, idea, or belief. There exist countless amounts of different types of fallacies and biases, however, regardless of whichever a piece of writing contains, when noticed fallacies and biases will negatively affect writing. When reading and writing, one should remain aware of these fallacies, especially ad hominem fallacies and biases. As will be displayed in both Langewiesche’s and Jones’s articles due to the fact that an abundance of these, divert readers from the main idea of their pieces, cause the authors’ credibility to be questioned, and therefore the credibility of the writing to be questioned as well.

Every day people want to convince others that their ideas are the right ones. People will engage in arguments to try to prove their claims with reasoning. However, many times, the individuals’ reasoning behind their claims are faulty and erroneously tries to prove their claims. Such type of reasoning is called a fallacy. One particular type of fallacy is called the Straw Man fallacy. In a Straw Man fallacy, a proponent intentionally misrepresents the opponent’s argument to facilitate the process of discrediting it. Analogously, it is much easier to defeat an individual made of straw than it is to defeat one made of flesh and blood (Copi, 113). In similar fashion, in a Straw Man, the proponent will use morally questionable and unfair

An argument is an effective strategy used to persuade individuals or public that a general opinion or perception is either right or wrong. Although, as we try to create a reasonable argument, chances are we encounter logical fallacies. A fallacy is a faulty line in reasoning that hinder our ability to make an argument invalid, affecting our ability to argue effectively. Fallacies are more commonly used as a tool to influence opinion or actions of individuals or group of individuals to as to obtain a future goal while obscuring the truth of the matter. These are more commonly referred to as propagandas, which persuades the public to be “for” or “against” certain political ideas, religion, races and opinions as a whole. A propagandist wants invoke

Both sides of the argument cite research that supports their position. However, these studies are often done in ridiculous setups using outdated and unplayed video games as a basis. Jeff Green, a writer for Computer Gaming World, wrote an article on one study that concluded that there was a link between teen violence and video games because after

In these two articles about the violent video games, it is the second author that follows these guidelines to successfully present her argument. As a result, the reader can see that the author presents trustworthy claim because she logically proves that there is not enough research to prove if violent video games have a evasive effect in

Ferguson creates his argument by conducting his own research on delinquency and bullying behaviors and how exposure to violent video games may influence them. His results indicated that the main predictor for delinquency and bullying were the aggression traits of the child as well as their stress levels. Many of my other sources use Ferguson’s research and I believe starting with his research and seeing why the other sources believe this about his work will help format my paper in a much simpler way.

All of the media address the subject of logical fallacies- they define them, give examples of their most common forms, and offer tips to avoid them as well as to identify them in our writing. A good argument is one that contains good premises that effectively back up a conclusion. All points must be presented in a logical way and must apply to reason. However, often arguments can contain fallacies and be weak. Logical fallacies are flaws that diminish the validity and relevance of an argument. They constitute “weak reasoning”. Some of the most common forms of logical fallacies are: making unfounded generalizations or basing an argument on stereotypes, assuming that correlation is the same thing as causation, presenting a premise in an argument

The use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or “wrong moves” in the construction of an argument are a fallacy. In a fallacious argument there might a deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is (Google). The two politicians debates, I decided to analyze were democrat Pat Quinn and republican Bruce Rauner. In these debates, I will be focusing on the fallacies that are used with what each politician is arguing. In political debates, each opponent will always use prepped material to make the other side look unsatisfactory, to earn another winning vote. Politics are won by lies, promises that are never achieved, and issues that will always remain unfixed.

Playing video games does not cause violent behavior. Don’t get me wrong, some video games show horrific acts of violence. “A recent survey found that 92 percent of U.S. kids--ages 2 to 17--play video games, and their parents bought 225 million of them last year to the tune of $6.4 billion.” (Sider 79).What’s here to argue is that violent video games do not cause violence among children, but the blame for violence should be on the individual and people who should have taught the individual better. If kids are not able to see the difference between reality and fantasy, then they really can’t be blamed for committing acts they see in a game and then imitating, not fully understanding the consequences of doing it in the real world.

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.

A strawman fallacy is defined as ‘someone misrepresenting, exaggerating or completely fabricating an opponent 's argument and thus attacks the wrong issue’. The article itself is deductive and is bias toward popular and personal opinion. It states;