Pick five of your favorite fallacies. Find advertisements, short news Essay

Pick five of your favorite fallacies. Find advertisements, short news stories, political arguments, etc (not all of the same - Essay Example One prominent area such logical fallacies occur is in arguments surrounding gay marriage. Increasingly gay marriage has assumed a prominent place in the lexicon of American civil rights challenges. Significant objections have been raised to gay marriage by conservative groups who wish to, as they indicate, preserve the sanctity of marriage. In reality these groups implement a variety of fallacious arguments. One prominent argument is that, â€Å"Marriage, the defenders contend, cannot possibly be treated as a â€Å"fundamental right† open to gays and lesbians because such a right must have a foundation in American history, legal traditions, and practices† (Denniston). The above argument clearly implements the appeal to traditional fallacy. The appeal to tradition fallacy argues that since for a long period of time something has been one way, in the future it will continue to be that way. As the argument is that gay marriage should continue to be illegal because it was h istorically prohibited America, it is implementing an appeal to tradition. It seems that rather than truly believing this argument, the intention of people making the argument is to support their position on gay marriage by bringing people’s attention to such precedent. ... For instance, a recent story about the upcoming National Football League draft implemented the fallacy of confusing cause and effect. Essentially, this fallacy operates by examining the relations between occurrences, and then erroneously arguing for a linkage between cause and effect. In terms the National Football League draft one article has speculated that the Kansas City Chiefs should pick a quarterback – Geno Smith – with the first pick (Kardar). While quarterbacks are frequently chosen with this pick, Geno Smith can arguably be said to not be worth the pick and that instead the franchise should go with a different position. The article is implementing cause and effect because it has considered that since many rookie quarterbacks were successful this year in the National Football League, they will necessarily be good next year. Rather, it is highly possible that the quarterbacks that were successful this year were so because they were all exceptionally talented and their success will not influence the success of future quarterbacks. Ultimately, it appears that the writer’s intention was out of a genuine belief that the National Football League has changed considerably, such that rookie quarterbacks are now able to succeed in ways they previously were not able to. Another prominent area of investigation in contemporary society is drug use. With the advent of designer drugs in the late 20th century, an increasing division emerged between casual drugs and those that were considered exceptionally dangerous. Because of this division many politicians and anti-drug activists have implemented the logical fallacy of the slippery slope. The slippery slope argument considers that if one thing is allowed then it will