In 2013 Ali Almossawi wrote a book called “Bad Arguments.” It is wonderful compilation of the structure of common arguments that are inherently faulty but still ring true. You hear them used, but then think to yourself “wait a minute, somethings not quite right.” What you are sensing is a failure in logical reasoning. It is the rhetoric of the day in Washington DC and the playbook of our “commander of disbelief”.
The following are examples from Wikipedia:
Hasty generalization The fallacy of examining just one or very few examples or studying a single case, and generalizing that to be representative of the whole class of objects or phenomena.
The Trump example is that immigrates commit more crime in the USA when data consistently disputes that.
slothful induction, is the fallacy of denying the logical conclusion of an inductive argument, dismissing an effect as "just a coincidence" when it is very likely not.
The Donald says Global Warming is a hoax put on by conspirators although more than 90% of the world’s scientist say that it happening
Overwhelming exception is related to the hasty generalization, but working from the other end. It is a generalization which is accurate, but tags on a qualification which eliminates enough cases (as exceptions); that what remains is much less impressive than what the original statement might have led one to assume. It goes something like this. “We will soon be able live on Mars, if we can figure out how to breath, eat, get there, and deal with gravity.
The booming economy is all due to Trump Magic although all indicators show that the recent growth started long before he was elected.
Biased sample –
Occurs because of (personal) bias of the sampling entity. toward one outcome. I think Trump is relying on a relationship with Putan to guide his Foreign Policy toward Russia despite the mounting evidence that is not an accurate assessment of Russian intentions.
Misleading vividness is a kind of hasty generalization that appeals to the senses.
Calling the Press Fake News is a quick and easy way to dismiss their conclusions.
Statistical special pleading occurs when the interpretation of the relevant statistic is "massaged" by looking for ways to reclassify or requantify data from one portion of results, but not applying the same scrutiny to other categories.
Trump used this to modify crowd sizes and election results.
