Through his signature tweeting campaign, Donald Trump began to transform the footballers’ protests (taking a knee) into a misrepresentation of the underlying motivation for their peaceful displays of dissent, and in classic ‘strawman’ fashion, then argue against the misrepresentation he had (disingenuously) fashioned.
Specifically, he transformed what originated as an expression of peaceful protest against racial injustice into a matter of “insulting” the military and disrespecting the flag. I cannot emphasize this point enough: this is a classic strawman argument. A logical fallacy.
Trump uses this maneuver with alarming regularity; he utilizes numerous forms of logical fallacy. He often forms compound logical fallacies. I believe he has most certainly, and quite overtly, done so in this instance; he began with a textbook strawman, and at this stage, has modified his bully pulpit meme to include an ‘argumentum ad Populum’, or the appeal to common belief, albeit a thoroughly convoluted application of this fallacy. (Trump has gained support after beginning with his strawman tweet by affixing the appeal to common belief not to Kapernick et al’s message whatsoever, but attaching these popular beliefs to what is in fact Trump’s strawman in the body of his misrepresentative or false argument!)
In other words, he is capitalizing upon the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ hyper-nationalist, fervent sense of patriotism and their attendant emotions surrounding symbols like the flag, as well as their blind faith and support of America’s warrior culture. It is important here to remember that the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ is often a byword for ‘collective folly’.
Americans, not generally regarded to be amongst the world’s more critical thinkers, would do well to familiarize themselves with the more common forms of logical fallacy. Otherwise, they shall continue to be fooled and misled by these logical trespasses and faulty arguments. Dependence upon ‘tricking’ the nation, and especially his followers, by cunning reliance upon invalid reasoning, is a contemptuous tactic to invoke, let alone for the President of our nation to perform, and when wielded without any serious challenge, results in a mass populace who will hold false and pernicious views.
If you number amongst those who have been so duped, congratulations! You are willfully ignorant.
Rick Landry
Corvallis