I hope this is not true for the readers of this blog, but I can assure you as a former college debater and current college debate coach, that the application of logic to policy arguments is absolutely lost on the vast majority of Americans. Sadly this is true across the entire range of political beliefs. Not all, but most people in this country simply lack the ability to identify a logical fallacy in an argument, and most of those will fail to grasp it even if it is pointed out to them. In my experince, this effect is magnified when the argument has an emotional component, as in Cheney's speach (we only waterboard evil terrorists that behead people, arguing against torture casts terrorists as innocents). Most people will be absolutely blinded bye this smokescreen, and will first hear ANY argument in response as "terrorists are not evil, or terrorists are innocent". I'm sure this is why Cheney chose to use these rhetorical devices.
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Storyteller,
I hope this is not true for the readers of this blog, but I can assure you as a former college debater and current college debate coach, that the application of logic to policy arguments is absolutely lost on the vast majority of Americans. Sadly this is true across the entire range of political beliefs. Not all, but most people in this country simply lack the ability to identify a logical fallacy in an argument, and most of those will fail to grasp it even if it is pointed out to them. In my experince, this effect is magnified when the argument has an emotional component, as in Cheney's speach (we only waterboard evil terrorists that behead people, arguing against torture casts terrorists as innocents). Most people will be absolutely blinded bye this smokescreen, and will first hear ANY argument in response as "terrorists are not evil, or terrorists are innocent". I'm sure this is why Cheney chose to use these rhetorical devices.
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