Propaganda and Fallacies

English 10H

Propaganda

the dissemination of information to influence the thoughts or behavior of a target audience

Snob Appeal

use of loaded words focused on quality or superiority

Plain Folks Appeal

use of loaded words focused on hard work or working-class values

Testimonial

quotations or endorsements which connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item.

Transfer

feelings (good or bad) are transferred from one thing to another by putting them next to or in front of one another.

Bandwagon Appeal

Peer pressure. Advertisements that use this appeal to people’s desire to belong to and fit into bigger groups.

Name calling/Stereotyping

occurs when complementary or pejorative words are used by governments, individuals, or the media to describe another person or group. The purpose is to subliminally manipulate or influence public opinion in order to generate conformity with the opinions of those producing the propaganda.

Loaded Words

superlative words such as new, better, toughest, best, etc.

Misuse of Statistics

politicians or brands deliberately select only the most flattering statistics for themselves and the least flattering of the opposition. This omission misleads the listener. 

Scare Tactics

A type of emotional appeal that persuades the audience by scaring them so much that they do what you want them to do.

Repetition

The use of a word, phrase, or sentence over and over for effect.

Deductive Logic

idea-first, followed by observations and a conclusion.

Inductive Logic

observation first, followed by an idea that could explain what’s been seen.

Syllogism

In logic, a form of deductive reasoning that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.

Enthymeme

An abbreviated syllogism

Fallacy of Relevance

a category of fallacies where the argument relies on evidence that has little to no bearing on the validity of the claim in order to distract away from the topic of discussion

Ad Hominem Fallacy

An attack of the other person’s character in order to discredit the argument

Tu Quoque Fallacy

Latin for “you, as well,” this fallacy calls the accuser a hypocrite. It distracts from the accused and focuses on the past actions and credibility of the accuser.

Sweeping Generalization

Making an oversimplified statement based on very limited evidence

Fallacies of Insufficiency

This category of fallacies is characterized by a failure to provide enough evidence (either mistakenly or deliberately) to prove the claim

Circular Reasoning

uses the premise as evidence for the conclusion of an argument.

Post Hoc Fallacy

An incorrect assumption that one event causes another event to happen simply because it happened just before it

Non Sequitur

a statement (such as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Fallacies of Accuracy

This category of fallacies is characterized by intentional or unintentional use of information that is not true or accurate.

Fallacy

error in reasoning, deliberately deceptive logic to come to a conclusion, misleading belief

Either or Fallacy

no reasonable middle ground, pigeonholing into a starting position, only two options

Straw Man Fallacy

Instead of attacking someone's position, you attack a mischaracterization of their position, refuting different piece of argument instead of head on argument